Organize Edilmiş Sporlara Katılan Çocuklar Önerilen Adım Sayısını Karşılıyor mu?

This study aimed to calculate the step counts of children who regularly participate in organized sports within specific time periods (weekday, weekend, school time, out-ofschool, sports days, days without sports) and to determine whether they reach the recommended activity level. Forty-one boys and 39 girls (11.97±.84 yrs. for all participants) participated in this study voluntarily. Step counts were determined by using ActiGraph wGT3x-BT. It was worn on their dominant wrist for seven days. An Independent Samples t-test was used to examine the difference between the genders. A Paired-Samples t-Test was used to compare the step counts of specific periods in both girls and boys. There were significant differences in step counts between boys and girls in terms of the whole week, weekdays, school time, Saturdays, sports days, and nonsports days, and boys reached more step counts than girls (p<0.05). No significant difference was found between school time and out of school time for boys. Weekly average, 56.4% of girls and 51.2% of boys meet the recommended number of steps. The number of steps taken by both girls and boys during the sport days was more than nonsport days (p <0,05). Moreover, girls and boys on weekdays took more the number of steps than on a weekend (p <0,05). In conclusion, boys reached more number of steps than girls in terms of the weekly average, weekdays, school time, Saturday, sports days, and non-sports days. The period in which the rate of reaching the recommended step counts for girls was highest (84.6%) on sports days. Both girls and boys had higher step counts on weekdays than on the weekends. The number of steps for both girls and boys on sports days was more than non-sport days.

It is also known that children who do not take part in sports regularly are usually not active enough. Thus, regular exercise is effective for reaching the recommended activity levels (Kwon et al., 2015;Marques et al., 2016). Wickel and Belton (2016) suggested that it is beneficial to structure out-of-school time for increasing physical activity levels of children, such as participating in exercise and sports (Guagliano et al., 2013;Hebert et al., 2015). However, the fact that children take part in organized sports regularly but not every day may not necessarily mean that they reach the recommended level of activity. Parents may assume that their children who are attending organized sports only a few days a week are sufficiently active. But even children who participate in any organized sports are not active enough on days when they are not doing sports.
The purpose of this study was to determine the step counts of children who regularly exercise a few days a week, within specific periods (weekdays, weekends, school time, out-of-school, sports days, days without sports, etc.) and whether they meet the recommended activity level.

Participants:
In this study, data were collected from a total of 118 children (58 boys, 60 girls) with ActiGraph wGT3X-BT for seven days of the week. Accelerometer data collected at least four days on weekdays and one weekend day with a minimum of eight hours wearing time were accepted as the inclusion criteria of the study. However, due to data that does not meet the inclusion criteria, 38 children (17 boys and 21 girls) excluded from the study. Thus, the data included in the study were collected from 80 healthy (39 girls and 41 boys) children aged 11-13 years (mean age 11.97±.84 yrs) who participated in organized sports regularly. Descriptive statistics related to the age, gender, height, bodyweight, and body mass index (BMI) of the children are given in Table 1. Children who regularly participate in organized sports (football, basketball, volleyball) for 2-4 days per week for at least one month were included in the study. The percentage of children engaging in sports per each day of sports days was 16.25% on Monday, 53.75% on Thuesday, 40% on Wednesday, 60% on Thursday, 18.75% on Friday, 95% on Saturday, 83.75% on Sunday. Data was collected between March and May of 2017 at various sports clubs in Ankara. This study was approved by Hacettepe University Noninterventional Clinical Research Ethics Board (GO 17/100). All children and their parents were briefed on the measurement procedures and purposes of the study. Each participants' parents signed informed consent. Therefore, the authors have written consents from the families, also consent was verbally obtained from each child. Data Collection: Height and weight were measured standing in light clothes, without shoes, at the indoor sport court, before wearing the ActiGraph wGT3X-BT. The children were asked to wear an ActiGraph wGT3X-BT on their dominant wrist for seven consecutive days except when showering, swimming, or taking part in any water activities. The epoch length was set at five seconds. Children who did not want to wear the accelerometer during bedtime were asked to remove it just before bedtime and put it back on as soon as possible after waking up in the morning. The first day, the children wore the accelerometers in the sports clubs, and the last day the devices were collected by the researchers at the sports clubs. It was observed that some children forgot to wear the device for some days. Accelerometer data were included in the study if it was collected at least four days on weekdays and one weekend day with a minimum of eight hours wearing time.

Time Period for Determining the Number of Steps:
 The average number of steps per day: The average number of steps was measured for a minimum of four weekdays and one weekend day.

Statistical Analysis:
The descriptive statistics were calculated as the mean and standard deviation. For each variable, the normality and homogeneity of variances were tested. Because of the effectuation of parametric assumptions, the significance test of the difference between the two means in the independent groups was applied to examine the difference between the genders. The confidence interval in this study was 95%. A Paired-Samples t-Test was used in the dependent groups in both girls and boys to compare the step numbers of weekdays and weekends, sport and non-sport days, and school time and out-of-school periods. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen's d. Cohen's criteria for small (>0.20), moderate (> 0.50), and large (>0.80) effect sizes were used to aid the interpretation of results (Cohen, 1988).. Table 2 represents the comparison of children's number of steps by gender. The results revealed that there were statistically significant differences between boys and girls in terms of the weekly average, weekdays, school time, Saturday, sports days, and non-sports days (see Table 2) (p<0.05). It was found that boys made significantly more steps than girls on the weekly average, weekdays, school time, Saturday, sports days, and non-sports days (p<0,05) (Table 2).

RESULTS
However, there was no statistically significant difference between the genders (p>0.05) in terms of the average number of steps out-of-school, on Sundays and weekend days (see Table 2).  Table 3). On weekends, 66.7% of girls and 73.2% of boys do not meet the recommended number of steps. The rate of reaching the number of steps recommended on non-sport days was considerably less than on sports days. In girls, this rate was almost half (84.6% vs. 41.0%), while in boys, it was two thirds (61.0% vs. 41.5%) (see Table 3). The difference in the number of steps for both girls and boys during the days when they were participating in sports and on days when they not do sports was more than 2500 steps (see Table 4) (p <0.001). While the effect size of the significant difference obtained was found to be a moderate effect for boys (Cohen's d = 0.66), it was seen to have a greater effect in girls (Cohen's d = 1.18). It was found that both girls and boys had higher step counts on weekdays than on the weekends (see Table 4) (p<0.01; p<0.001). The effect size of the significant difference between weekdays and weekends was found to be small for girls (Cohen's d = 0.48) and moderate for boys (Cohen's d = 0.73). While the step counts of girls in school were statistically higher than outside school (see Table 4) (p<0.04, Cohen's d= 0.33), a significant difference was not found between the number of steps of school time and out-of-school for boys (see Table 4) (p >0.16), Cohen's d= 0.22).

DISCUSSION
The purpose of the study was to determine the step counts of children aged 11-13 years who regularly exercise on some days of the week within specific time periods (weekdays, weekends, school time, out-of-school, sports days, days . The results indicated that boys were more active than girls and that their average step counts were about 2500 steps higher than those of girls (p <0.05) (see Table 2). This result is in line with the findings of the previous studies (Gauthier seem to depend on the type and intensity of the activity. Boys' vigorous physical activity levels are prone to higher than girls' (Sherar et al., 2007). In the present study, the type and intensity of the activity may cause obtaining gender 180 differences when the step counts were considered to change depending on the type and intensity of the activity.
Furthermore, Bailey et al. (2012) found that boys had higher moderate to vigorous physical activity levels than girls during school time (class time, lunch break, and school recess). Therefore, the result in favor of boys in terms of the step counts in school time in which was spent most of the day may be decisive in revealing gender difference. In this study, the average number of steps per day was found to be approximately 2300 steps more for girls and 2500 steps more for boys when compared with the study conducted by Michalopoulou et al. (2011). The reason for this difference might be that the children who took part in this study were participating in sports regularly for 2-4 days a week.
Martinez-Gomez et al. (2010) revealed that the percentage of girls who met the recommended level of physical activity was lower than that of boys (28.1% and 58.8%, respectively). As seen in the study conducted by Guagliano et al. (2013), the present study also concluded that engaging in regular sports activities makes a significant contribution to the achievement of the girls' number of steps (see Table 3). In this research, the percentage of meeting the recommended number of steps (for girls: ≥13,000 steps/day; for boys: ≥16,000 steps/day) was significantly higher in girls, especially on the days when they engaged in sports regularly (girls: 84.6%; boys: 61.0%). On non-sports days, this ratio dropped by about 40% for both genders (see Table 3). In this study, while girls were taking nearly 3,000 more steps on the days when they were playing sports than on the days without sports, boys took about 2500 steps more (see Table 4). This increase in physical activity contributes to total physical activity in their study on 15-year-old adolescents. In this study, the absence of differences between genders in the number of out-of-school steps (see Table 2) may be due to both boys and girls participating in out-of-school sports activities. One of the most important findings of the present study was the increase in the average number of steps taken by both boys and girls during periods when days of organized sports were included.
There were some limitations in this study. Children engaged in organized sports (football, volleyball, basketball) for 2-4 days a week. The sample size of the study is relatively low, and the age range of children who participated in the study is relatively small (11-13).
There were some strengths in the present study. ActiGraph wGT3x-BT accelerometer is a valid and reliable instrument as an objective method for assessing children's physical activity. Moreover, the monitoring period of free-living physical activity is relatively long (5-7 days, minimum of four weekdays, and one weekend).
Future studies should focus on a larger sample group, a wider age group, more sports branches, two (wrist-worn and waist-worn) accelerometer attachments at the same time. Unstructured recess and lunchtime and physical education classes during school hours and also training hours during out-of-school hours should be examined.

CONCLUSION
It has been revealed that: 1) boys were more active than girls, 2) the average number of steps on weekdays was higher than on weekends, 3) the average number of steps on sports days was more than the average number of steps on nonsports days, 4) the average number of school time steps for boys was higher than the number of out-of-school steps, while the average number of out-of-school steps for girls was higher than the number of in-school steps, 5) the average number of steps and the percentage of steps to reach the recommended number of steps were higher for children (especially girls) when they participate in out-of-school sports activities, and also the participation in out-of-school sports activities is effective in increasing the number of daily steps of children.
Implications of the findings: Globally, 81% of adolescents aged 11-17 years do not meet the WHO global recommendations on physical activity for health. The report obtained by WHO in 2015 showed that inactivity prevalence was 85-89.9% for girls and 75-79.9% for boys in Turkey. Accordingly, the prevalence of meeting MVPA recommendations is needed to increase in Turkey. In our study, given the step counts of children who regularly exercise, results showed that they meet the recommended step counts. In the sport days, both girls and boys reached recommended level of step counts but in the non-sport days, they did not reach recommended level of step counts. On the other hand, the findings demonstrated that regularly done organized sport out of school contributes to reaching the recommended step counts. Thus, participation in sports of children should be encouraged by both their teachers and parents. The school time in which take a large part of the weekday has a crucial role to be reached in the targeted step counts of children on weekdays. Therefore, this study may point out that it should be arranged by policymakers of the lesson curriculum that is needed to be integrated physical activity into the classroom and access to equipment and organized activities during breaktimes.