Abstract
Most of the studies analyzing the effect of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on children’s health do not contain information on early stages or do not use accurate methods. We investigated the association between PA and body composition using objective methods, perinatal data, lifestyle behaviors, and World Health Organization (WHO) physical activity (PA) recommendations. The CALINA study is a longitudinal observational cohort study of children born in Aragon (Spain) in 2009. A total of 308 7-year-old children (52.3% boys) were assessed. We used dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and accelerometry. Rapid weight gain until 12 months and lifestyle behaviors were considered as covariates both in the ANCOVA and linear regression models. A higher percentage of boys met the WHO PA recommendations compared to girls (69.6% vs. 40.9%, respectively; p < 0.001). There was a negative association between MVPA and subtotal fat and abdominal fat in both girls and boys. After adjusting for perinatal and lifestyle variables, we found that subtotal body fat, abdominal fat, and fat mass index (FMI) were significantly lower in those classified as active. MVPA was associated with body fat both in boys and girls. More research is needed to identify the cutoffs points of MVPA that generate benefit to boys and girls in all body composition components.
Highlights
Obesity is a condition characterized by the excess of body fat, affecting both adults and children, and there has been an alarming increase of childhood obesity in the last decades [1]
After adjusting by rapid weight gain (RWG), parental BMI, maternal smoking during pregnancy, origin of the mother, child BMI z-score at 7 years, Diet Quality Index (DQI), and Weekly screen time (WST), we found that body subtotal fat, abdominal fat, and fat mass index (FMI) were all significantly lower both in boys and girls meeting physical activity (PA) recommendations (Table 2)
The standardized procedures and the well-trained health professionals in charge of the measurements, together with the fact that the obtained results are in line with those obtained in bigger studies, allow us to conclude that, since early ages, it seems that there is a large difference between PA levels between boys and girls, there is an important difference in screen time in favor of girls in this case
Summary
Obesity is a condition characterized by the excess of body fat, affecting both adults and children, and there has been an alarming increase of childhood obesity in the last decades [1]. This is of relevance as both excess body weight and adiposity are associated with a number of comorbidities affecting almost every system in the body, including psychological problems [2]. Rapid infant growth, or short breastfeeding have shown to be amongst the earliest factors contributing to later excess of body weight or adiposity [2,5]. Still there is scarce evidence on large cohorts followed since birth to really understand until what extent such factors influence body composition or future health
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