Abstract
BackgroundFurther collection of surveillance data is warranted, particularly in preschool populations, for optimizing future public health promotion strategies. This study aims to describe physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) across different settings, including time in and out of daycare, and to determine the proportion of children complying with suggested PA recommendations in a high income country.MethodsValid PA was assessed in 231 children (36.4 ± 1.1 months) with the Actigraph GT3X accelerometer, and information regarding date and time of dropping-off/picking-up children in daycare was provided by parents. Mean total PA (i.e., counts per minute (CPM)), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), SB time, and non-SB time was generated and compared across settings. Post hoc, PA and SB were examined in subgroups of low-active (1st quartile) and high-active (4th quartile) children.ResultsOverall, boys and girls spent 1.4 ± 0.3 h/day and 1.2 ± 0.4 h/day in MVPA, respectively. Likewise, boys and girls accumulated 6.7 ± 0.8 h and 6.8 ± 0.9 h of SB time per day, respectively. Higher PA levels consistently co-occurred with lower SB time in the daycare setting. Girls accumulated less SB time in daycare than before and after daycare (β = −12.2%, p < 0.001 & β = −3.8%, p < 0.001, respectively). In boys, daycare-days contained more PA and less SB than non-daycare-days (CPM: β =29, p = 0.046, %MVPA: β = 0.83, p = 0.007, %SB: β = −2.3, p < 0.001, respectively). All children fulfilled recommendations of at least 3 h of daily non-SB. Eighty-nine percent of boys and 72% of girls met the daily 1-h MVPA recommendation for 5 year-olds. Lower proportions of children, especially boys, fulfilled MVPA recommendation on days with no daycare attendance. Generally, large mean differences in MVPA and SB were observed across all settings between the most active and the least active children, and only 7% of the low-active girls and 59% of the low-active boys fulfilled MVPA recommendations.ConclusionsOverall, the majority of children fulfilled MVPA guidelines for 5 year-olds, and all children complied with suggested recommendations of 180 min of daily activity. Daycare time was found to represent an important setting for PA. Substantial and consistent differences observed in the amount of time spent physically active between high- and low-active children across all settings indicate substantial variations in young children’s PA levels irrespective of the context.
Highlights
Further collection of surveillance data is warranted, in preschool populations, for optimizing future public health promotion strategies
We reported that 72% of girls and 89% of boys accumulated at least 60 min of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) which is recommended for children when they reach the age of 5 years
All children fulfilled the recommendation of 3 h of physical activity (PA) with at least light intensity per day, and 72% and 89% of girls and boys, respectively, accumulated at least 60 daily minutes of MPVA
Summary
Further collection of surveillance data is warranted, in preschool populations, for optimizing future public health promotion strategies. According to the World Health Organization, more than 41 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight [2]. PA recommendations for children younger than five years have only been formulated fairly recently, and they are generally based on the pragmatic belief that the preschool years constitute a critical period for increasing PA and reducing SB that is pivotal for enhancing various health outcomes. There appears to be some consensus across the UK [8], Australia [9], and Canada [10] that preschoolers should accumulate at least 3 h of PA per day, with the latter further clarifying that children should progress towards at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day at the age of five years. There are currently no quantifiable MVPA recommendations for children under the age of five years even though some have advocated that 1 h of structured PA together with 1 h of unstructured PA should be accumulated each day [11]
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