Recent Trends in Sedentary Behaviors among Chinese Children According to Demographic and Social Characteristics

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore trends in sedentary behavior among Chinese children aged 6–17 years per demographic and social characteristics. MethodsA total of 4,341 children aged 6–17 years who participated in the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 2004 to 2015 were included. Repeated measures from mixed-effects models were applied to test trends in sedentary behaviors, which were further analyzed after applying stratification according to gender, age, urbanization level, residential area, and region. Random-effects ordinal regression models were used to examine the trends at sedentary levels. ResultsFrom 2004 to 2015, sedentary time among children aged 6–17 years increased from 23.9 ± 0.6 h/week to 25.7 ± 0.6 h/week (P < 0.001). Increases of 3.1 h/week (P < 0.001), 2.3 h/week (P = 0.012), and 1.3 h/week (P = 0.042) were found among the low-, medium-, and high-urbanization groups respectively and increased by 2.0 h/week (P < 0.001) and 1.3 h/week (P = 0.002) among rural and urban children, respectively. The proportion of Chinese children with average daily screen time below 2 hours declined by 10.2% (OR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.42–0.63, P < 0.001); a decreasing trend was observed in both boys and girls. ConclusionsSedentary time among Chinese children aged 6–17 years showed an upward trend from 2004 to 2015, especially among children residing in rural areas and regions with low urbanization levels.