Prevalence of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior among Chinese Children and Adolescents: Variations, Gaps, and Recommendations

Hejun Shen, Jin Yan, Jin-Tao Hong, Cain Clark, Xian-Nan Yang, Yang Liu and Si-Tong Chen
Additional contact information
Hejun Shen: School of Physical Education and Humanity, Nanjing Sport Institute, Nanjing 210014, China
Jin Yan: Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
Jin-Tao Hong: School of Physical Education and Sport Training, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China
Cain Clark: Centre for Sport, Exercise, and Life Sciences, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
Xian-Nan Yang: School of Physical Education and Sport, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Yang Liu: School of Physical Education and Sport Training, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China
Si-Tong Chen: Department of Physical Education, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518061, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: Physical-activity (PA) and sedentary-behavior (SB) assessment is of particular importance in the promotion of health in young people. However, there is no comprehensive overview of PA and SB from national surveys among Chinese children and adolescents. Following a literature search for Chinese national health surveys, 11 papers from six national surveys were found. Of the included studies, the majority applied self-reported questionnaires to estimate the prevalence of PA and SB. Owing to different definitions of the prevalence of PA and SB and various measures, a large variation in prevalence of PA and SB was observed. Such variations were attributable to methodological and practical issues. This study highlights the current gaps in estimating the national prevalence of PA and SB among Chinese children and adolescents, which should be addressed. To improve the quality of PA and SB surveillance, standardized measurement protocols to estimate the prevalence of PA and SB more accurately among Chinese children and adolescents are urgently required.

Keywords: moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; sedentary behavior; national monitoring and surveillance; research gaps; recommendations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3066/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/9/3066/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:9:p:3066-:d:351710

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().