Abstract

Children’s body mass index may affect physical activity (PA) participation. Therefore, this study examined the effect of children’s weight status on underserved elementary school children’s PA and sedentary behavior (SB) throughout the segmented day. Participants were 138 children (age = 8.14 years). Children’s height and weight were measured with subsequent classification of children as healthy weight or overweight/obese. Durations of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), light PA (LPA), and SB during physical education (PE), morning recess, lunch recess, after school, and overall were assessed via accelerometry over three days. Independent t-tests evaluated differences in children’s MVPA, LPA, and SB during each daily segment by weight status. Significantly higher MVPA was observed for children of healthy weight status versus children with overweight/obesity during morning recess, t(136) = 2.15, p = 0.03, after school, t(136) = 2.68, p < 0.01, and overall, t(136) = 2.65, p < 0.01. Interestingly, comparisons of children of healthy weight status and children with overweight/obesity’s LPA and SB during the after-school segment revealed a trend wherein children with overweight/obesity participated in slightly greater LPA/less SB than children of healthy weight status. Higher MVPA was observed among children of healthy weight versus children with overweight/obesity during most daily segments. Concerted efforts should focus on increasing MVPA among children with overweight/obesity.

Highlights

  • Childhood obesity continues to be a problem, within developed countries like the U.S [1]

  • Half (48.5%) of the children in the study were observed to be overweight or obese after classifying weight status using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Body mass index (BMI)-for-age growth chart [31]. This percentage is substantially higher than the percentage of children classified as overweight or obese in the U.S.—33.4% [1]. Contributing to this observation is the fact the current sample was comprised of children who were underserved from a Title-I elementary school, a majority of whom came from families lower in socioeconomic standing—a factor suggested to inversely relate to youths’ BMI [32]

  • Data indicated that children of healthy weight status engaged in significantly more moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) during morning recess, after school, and overall compared to children with overweight/obesity

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Summary

Introduction

Childhood obesity continues to be a problem, within developed countries like the U.S [1]. Research has suggested overweight and obesity track from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood, with up to 77% of overweight children found to be overweight or obese as adults [2] contributing to cardiometabolic diseases (e.g., coronary heart disease, diabetes) and premature mortality [3]. Given these negative health outcomes, promotion of daily physical activity (PA) among children has become paramount [4,5,6,7]. Few studies have examined how children’s BMI influences PA participation across multiple daily segments

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