Use of a spatiotemporal approach for understanding preschoolers' playground activity. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Clevenger, Kimberly A.; Grady, Sue C.; Erickson, Karl; Pfeiffer, Karin A.
• Is Part Of: Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology. Volume 35(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: Hot spot -- GPS -- Accelerometer -- Recess; Epidemiology -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; Epidemiology -- Periodicals; 614.4072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sste.2020.100376
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1877-5845

Abstract

Highlights: There was spatial variation in activity over the course of outdoor time and the day. Some locations elicited both hot and cold spots, depending on the time. Future research may consider implementing spatiotemporal hot spot analysis. 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.