Use of a spatiotemporal approach for understanding preschoolers' playground activity

Kimberly A Clevenger; Sue C Grady; Karl Erickson; Karin A Pfeiffer

doi:10.1016/j.sste.2020.100376

Use of a spatiotemporal approach for understanding preschoolers' playground activity

Spat Spatiotemporal Epidemiol. 2020 Nov:35:100376. doi: 10.1016/j.sste.2020.100376. Epub 2020 Sep 1.

Authors

Kimberly A Clevenger¹, Sue C Grady², Karl Erickson³, Karin A Pfeiffer⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, 308 W Circle Dr, Room 040, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States. Electronic address: Cleven18@msu.edu.
² Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, United States. Electronic address: gradys@msu.edu.
³ Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, 308 W Circle Dr, Room 040, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States. Electronic address: kte@msu.edu.
⁴ Department of Kinesiology, Michigan State University, 308 W Circle Dr, Room 040, East Lansing, MI 48824, United States. Electronic address: kap@msu.edu.

PMID: 33138956
DOI: 10.1016/j.sste.2020.100376

Abstract

This study used spatiotemporal hot-spot analysis to characterize physical activity on the childcare center playground. Preschool-aged children (N = 34) wore a GPS and accelerometer during 2-3 outdoor periods on one day. A spatiotemporal weights matrix was generated so that points within a specified distance in meters (space) and 3 min (time) were considered neighbors. The Getis-Ord G* statistic was calculated to detect locations of significant hot/cold spots in vector magnitude counts/15‑sec. Hot/cold spots changed within a single outdoor period and between outdoor periods, highlighting the importance of time. This approach can be used to identify points of intervention during provided outdoor time.

Keywords: Accelerometer; GPS; Hot spot; Recess.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child Day Care Centers / statistics & numerical data*
Child Health
Child, Preschool
Exercise*
Female
Geographic Information Systems
Humans
Male
Michigan / epidemiology
Play and Playthings
Spatio-Temporal Analysis