Health Reports, April 2012

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The April 2012 online issue of Health Reports, released today, contains two articles.

The first article, "Daily patterns of physical activity among Canadians," identifies the times during the day when people engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), based on accelerometer measures over seven consecutive days. Minutes of MVPA are reported for two-hour intervals from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., by age group and sex, for weekdays and weekends. Patterns of physical activity among the most and least active in the population are also described. The data are from the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey.

For more information on this article, contact Didier Garriguet (613-951-7187; didier.garriguet@statcan.gc.ca), Health Analysis Division.

The second article, "Physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in Canadian children: Parent-report versus direct measures and relative associations with health risk," uses both parent-reported and directly measured (accelerometry) data about children's activity from the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey to examine moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep duration in children aged 6 to 11. The objective was to compare and contrast findings from these data collection methods, and explore differences in their associations with health markers in children.

For more information on this article, contact Rachel Colley (613-951-1193; rachel.colley@statcan.gc.ca), Health Analysis Division.