Physical activity and screen time behaviors among Washington, D.C. youth

In 2007 Washington, D.C. ranked highest in the nation for the prevalence of overweight youth. Data from the 2007 Washington, D.C. middle and high-school Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) (n = 19,330) was used to analyze physical-activity and screen time, two variables in weight control. This thesis sought to determine the proportion of D.C. students who met 2005 recommendations and 2010 objectives, and to study the correlation between physical-activity and television viewing or physical-activity and video game/computer use. Results reveal that 29.7% of students are meeting the physical-activity recommendation, 46.4% are meeting the television viewing objective, 69.8% are meeting the video game/computer use objective, and 14.7% are meeting the daily physical-education objective. Correlation results were weak, yet positive and statistically significant. However, practical interpretations of the correlation results reveal no relationship between these variables. These correlation results do not support the hypotheses.