HHS HealthBeat (April 02, 2009)

Tracking Kids’ Walking

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Obese children can benefit from activities that burn calories. But how to keep track may be trickier than it looks.

A study looked at two popular types of pedometers, which count the number of steps people take. But pedometers are triggered by the impact of the foot striking the ground, and they can be affected by how fast a person walks.

So the study checked pedometers’ accuracy by watching kids walk. Mayo Clinic researcher Naim Mitre looked for the percentage of times the pedometers got it right.

[Naim Mitre speaks] "Obese kids, if they walked slow speed or fast speed, is very inaccurate – and usually will still be less than 5 percent."

Mitre says kids need activity, but pedometers are not the best way to check.

The study in the journal Pediatrics was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 02 2009