Abstract
Physical activity participation in children declines with age. It is not clear yet whether the age-related trends vary by weight status. This study is aimed at investigating the association between physical activity participation and age among children with healthy weight, overweight, or obesity, using data from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). Physical activity participation was evaluated by days participated in physical activity for at least 60 minutes out of 7 days. Weight status was categorized from body mass index (BMI) percentiles. Data were analyzed on 33,056 US children age 10-17 years. The percentages of been active 0 day out of 7 days in BMI5th < 85th (healthy weight), 85th < 95th (overweight), and ≥95th percentile (obese) groups were 8.9%, 11.5%, and 18.2%, respectively. Among all groups, been active 0 day out of 7 days was positively associated with age, while the strongest associations were observed in the BMI85th < 95th group (age 17 years vs. age 10 years: OR = 7.48, p < 0.0001). Older age was significantly associated with been active less than 4 days out of 7 days in the BMI5th < 85th and 85th < 95th groups, but those associations were attenuated in the BMI ≥ 95th group. This study found that physical activity participation was inversely associated with age among children with healthy weight, overweight, or obese, and the association was strongest among children with overweight and weakest among children with obesity. Interventions aimed at promoting physical activity among children should take these patterns of association into account.
Highlights
Maintaining physical activity participation throughout childhood is important for promoting lifelong health [1,2,3,4]
Data were analyzed on 33,056 US children age 10-17 years and body mass index (BMI) ≥ 5th percentile
Of the children included in the analysis, 71.13% were categorized into the BMI5th < 85th group, 15.15% were categorized into the BMI85th < 95th group, and 13.72% were categorized into the BMI ≥ 95th group
Summary
Maintaining physical activity participation throughout childhood is important for promoting lifelong health [1,2,3,4]. Based on the best available evidence, several global and national guidelines recommend that children and adolescents should accumulate a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate-tovigorous physical activity daily [5,6,7,8]. An important feature of physical activity participation in children and adolescents is that it declines with age [12, 13]. Childhood and adolescence are transitional periods of life marked by many biological, environmental, social, and psychological transformations, which influence changes in physical activity [14, 15]. The age-related decline of physical activity is a contributory factor to the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity [16, 17]. Becoming inactive during the transition from adolescence to adulthood is associated with higher risk of obesity [17]
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