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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

Union: Abstract presentations: Monitoring Physical Activity and Health Across the Life Course
Location: Grand Hotel Union
Session Chair: Anja Frei

Presentation 6

12:20pm - 12:23pm

Physical activity tracker use among Finnish adolescents between 2016-2024.

Kwok Ng^1,2,3, Riikka Hämylä⁴, Sami Kokko⁴, Katja Rinta-Antila⁴

1: University of Turku, Finland; 2: University of Limerick, Ireland; 3: Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuania; 4: University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Physical activity trackers (PAT) can be devices that record movement data. Ownership of PAT have the potential for increasing PA behaviour during adolescence.

The aim was to analyse the ownership of PAT among Finnish adolescents aged 11y, 13y, and 15y, between 2016 to 2024, and its association with PA.

Repeated cross-sectional data (2016-2024) from the Finnish School-age Physical Activity (F-SPA) study were conducted on ownership of PATs (mobile apps, smart watches). Binominal logistic regression analyses (reference = no ownership) were performed with study year and PA as independent variable.

There were increases in ownership of all PATs from 2016 (apps = 52%; watches = 27%) to 2024 (apps = 65%; OR = 1.2, CI =1.1-1.3; watches = 43%; OR = 1.9, CI = 1.7-2.1). Simply having PAT was associated positively with increased PA from 0-2 days to 3-4days (Apps: OR=1.6, CI = 1.5-1.8; watches: OR = 1.7, CI = 1.5-1.8).

Although weekly use of apps continues to increase since 2016, weekly use of watches has not changed between 2022 and 2024 among Finnish adolescents. There were modest associations between ownership with increased PA levels.

Implications for Policy and Practice:

Regulations on mobile phone restrictions during school times limits the accuracy of the data from apps, which may increase the interest in wearables linked with apps. Alternatively, less use of apps for PAT may occur as the phone’s sensor are not allowed to measure activity for a large portion of the day (i.e. school time). Investigations on PAT use are warranted.