Time Devoted to Daily Life Activities Based on the Days of the Week, Age, and Gender in Healthy Children Under Five Years Old Living in Isfahan City, Iran

 Activities of daily living are activities that are formed in order to take care of the body and are essential for life and well-being and fundamental survival. These activities begin in infancy and are modified at different stages of development. Cultural values, parental expectations, social routines, and the physical environment influence daily activities. Concerns about children's use of time and daily activities are not new, but studies on them are rare. So to have more information and knowledge about children's lives and well-being, we need to have more information about their daily activities. The aim of this study was to investigate the time allocated to daily life activities based on the day of the week, age and gender in healthy children under 5 years in Isfahan.

In this survey (descriptive-analytical) study in which healthy children under 5 years old in Isfahan were present, from different age groups according to the population of that age group, 240 girls and boys so that the number of girls and boys were equal in the age categories of less than 1 month, 2 to 3 months, 4 to 6 months, 7 to 12 months, 1 to 2 years and 3 to 5 years, were selected by multi-stage, stratified, cluster and convenience sampling . In order to collect research data, demographic questionnaire and time use diary tools were used.

The results showed that on weekdays, among the components of daily life activities, the most time with an average of 150.59 minutes per day is devoted to eating (and drinking) and the least time with an average of 0.02% per day is devoted to caring of Personal belongings, while in the last days on average the most time is spent eating (and drinking) and the least time is spent on other daily activities. In different age groups on weekdays, infants 0 to 1 month with an average of 273.35 minutes per day have the most time and children 25-60 months with an average of 154.65 minutes per day have the least time devoted to daily life activities on weekdays. Meanwhile, infants in the age group of 0-1 months on a weekend spent the most time on daily activities and children in the age group of 25-60 months spent the least time on daily activities. Girls and boys spent the most time eating (and drinking) among the activities of daily living on a weekend, while boys and girls spent the least time on other daily activities that are not categorized in this study. There was no significant difference Between the time allocated to daily life activities on weekdays and weekends and between the time allocated by girls and boys under 5 years old living in Isfahan on one day a week to activity of daily livings, both on weekdays and weekends (P>0.05). However, there is a significant difference between the time use of daily life activities in different age groups on weekdays and weekends (P<0.05), and finally, there is a difference between the time allocated to daily life activities on one day of the week and the weekend (P<0.05).

 According to the results of the present study, age groups and days of the week are influential factors on daily activities, but gender has no effect on daily activity patterns.