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Quantified outdoor micro-activity data for children aged 7–12-years old

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 22, pages 82–92 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Estimation of aggregate exposure and risk requires detailed information regarding dermal contact and mouthing activity. We analyzed micro-level activity time series (MLATS) of children aged 7–12 years to quantify these contact behaviors and evaluate differences by age and gender. In all, 18 children, aged 7–12 years, were videotaped while playing outdoors. Video footage was transcribed via Virtual Timing Device (VTD) software. We calculated the hand and mouth contact frequency, hourly duration and median duration of contact with 16 object categories. Median mouthing frequencies were 12.6 events/h and 2.6 events/h for hands and non-dietary objects, respectively. Median hourly mouthing duration was 0.4 min/h and 0.1 min/h with hands and objects. Median mouthing contact duration was 1 s and 1.5 s with hands and objects, respectively. The median object contact frequency for both the hands combined was 537.3 events/h with an hourly contact duration of 81.8 min/h and a median contact duration of 3 s. There were no significant differences in the mouthing activity between genders or age groups. Female children had longer and more frequent hand contacts with several surface types. Age was negatively correlated with hand contacts of floor and wood surfaces. Contact frequencies in this study are higher than current regulatory recommendations for this age group.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by ORETF Study #ORF018, US EPA Contract #QT-RT-99-001182, the University of Arizona Vice Provost for Research, and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Human subjects: A human subjects protocol (titled “Quantifying Children's Activity Patterns on Residential Lawns Using Videotaping Methods”) and informed consent form were approved by the Institutional Review Boards at Stanford University (Protocol #9798-487, approved 25 June 1998) for collection and transcription of the videotaped data. A human subjects protocol (title “Quantifying Children's Microlevel Activities from Transcribed Data”) was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Arizona (Protocol #09-0693-02, most recently approved 3 August 2010) for the analyses of the transcribed data presented in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Health Sciences, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Paloma I Beamer & Catherine E Luik

  2. Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Eugene Lang College, The New School, New York, New York, USA

    Robert A Canales

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Exposure Research Group, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

    James O Leckie

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  1. Paloma I Beamer
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  2. Catherine E Luik
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Correspondence to Paloma I Beamer.

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Beamer, P., Luik, C., Canales, R. et al. Quantified outdoor micro-activity data for children aged 7–12-years old. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 22, 82–92 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2011.34

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