Abstract
BackgroundMore research is needed about the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and adiposity in preschoolers, particularly using more direct clinical measures of adiposity. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the association between objectively measured PA and different clinical adiposity measures in a large sample of preschoolers.MethodsFour hundred sixty-three predominantly normal-weight (77%) 2–6-year-old preschool children participated in the Swiss Preschoolers’ Health Study (SPLASHY). Physical activity was measured using accelerometers and was analyzed using 15-s (uni-axial) epoch length using validated cut-offs. Adiposity measures included body mass index (BMI), the sum of four skinfolds, and waist circumference (WC). Multilevel linear regression modeling, adjusted for age, sex and wear time, was used to assess the association between PA and SB with BMI, WC, and skinfold thickness.ResultsTotal PA and different PA intensities were positively and SB was inversely associated with BMI in the total sample and in the normal-weight children (p < 0.05). Total PA was inversely associated with skinfold thickness in overweight and obese children (p < 0.05), while there was only a weak association for vigorous PA (p > 0.05). Moderate and moderate-to-vigorous PA were positively, and SB was negatively associated with WC in the total sample and in the normal-weight children (p < 0.05). Additional adjustment for potential sociocultural and biological confounding variables attenuated some of the results.ConclusionsIn this very young and predominantly normal-weight population, PA is positively related to BMI and WC, but this relationship is not observed in overweight and obese children. In this latter population, PA is inversely, and SB is positively related to skinfold thickness. Skinfold thickness could represent a useful and simple clinical measure of body fat in preschoolers. The role of vigorous PA in the prevention of early childhood obesity should be further investigated in future studies.Trial registrationISRCTN ISRCTN41045021. Retrospectively registered 06 May 2014.
Highlights
More research is needed about the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and adiposity in preschoolers, using more direct clinical measures of adiposity
Preschool children were recruited from 84 childcare centers within five cantons of Switzerland (Aargau, Bern, Fribourg, Vaud, Zurich), which together made up 50% of the Swiss population
Overweight and obesity prevalence rates were 18 and 5% according to World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria [35]
Summary
More research is needed about the association between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and adiposity in preschoolers, using more direct clinical measures of adiposity. The association between PA and adiposity in preschool children seems to depend on the outcome measure of adiposity. Most studies that have used body mass index (BMI) to assess adiposity failed to find an association, whereas studies that used percent bodyfat (BF) as outcome measure for adiposity found evidence for an inverse association [5]. Results for sedentary behaviour (SB) and adiposity are somewhat inconsistent [6,7,8] with null associations for objectively assessed SB [6], and a positive association of SB with waist circumference (WC) in girls [7]. More research is needed to understand the association between PA, SB and adiposity in preschool children
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