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Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers

Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers
Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers
BACKGROUND: Detailed associations between physical activity (PA) subcomponents, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the magnitude of associations between objectively measured PA subcomponents and sedentary time with body composition in 4-y-old children.

DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 398 preschool children recruited from the Southampton Women's Survey. PA was measured by using accelerometry, and body composition was measured by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Associations between light physical activity, moderate physical activity (MPA), vigorous physical activity (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) intensity; sedentary time; and body composition were analyzed by using repeated-measures linear regression with adjustment for age, sex, birth weight, maternal education, maternal BMI, smoking during pregnancy, and sleep duration. Sedentary time and PA were also mutually adjusted for one another to determine whether they were independently related to adiposity.

RESULTS: VPA was the only intensity of PA to exhibit strong inverse associations with both total adiposity [P < 0.001 for percentage of body fat and fat mass index (FMI)] and abdominal adiposity (P = 0.002 for trunk FMI). MVPA was inversely associated with total adiposity (P = 0.018 for percentage of body fat; P = 0.022 for FMI) but only because of the contribution of VPA, because MPA was unrelated to fatness (P ? 0.077). No associations were shown between the time spent sedentary and body composition (P ? 0.11).

CONCLUSIONS: In preschoolers, the time spent in VPA is strongly and independently associated with lower adiposity. In contrast, the time spent sedentary and in low-to-moderate-intensity PA was unrelated to adiposity. These results indicate that efforts to challenge pediatric obesity may benefit from prioritizing VPA.
0002-9165
1020-1028
Collings, Paul J.
32c52424-8cc2-4342-8f6e-bff88d3613f9
Brage, Soren
3705fa6b-2018-4ad6-9143-fa9240ec0fc9
Ridgway, Charlotte L.
d0b17167-d1e4-40f7-a523-0d62fc471c66
Harvey, Nicholas C.
ce487fb4-d360-4aac-9d17-9466d6cba145
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Inskip, Hazel M.
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Wareham, Nicholas J.
bbc18cd9-3512-4ca6-806c-75c9a01e5adf
Ekelund, Ulf
40094b66-216c-476e-886f-112ecf1833ef
Collings, Paul J.
32c52424-8cc2-4342-8f6e-bff88d3613f9
Brage, Soren
3705fa6b-2018-4ad6-9143-fa9240ec0fc9
Ridgway, Charlotte L.
d0b17167-d1e4-40f7-a523-0d62fc471c66
Harvey, Nicholas C.
ce487fb4-d360-4aac-9d17-9466d6cba145
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Inskip, Hazel M.
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Wareham, Nicholas J.
bbc18cd9-3512-4ca6-806c-75c9a01e5adf
Ekelund, Ulf
40094b66-216c-476e-886f-112ecf1833ef

Collings, Paul J., Brage, Soren, Ridgway, Charlotte L., Harvey, Nicholas C., Godfrey, Keith M., Inskip, Hazel M., Cooper, Cyrus, Wareham, Nicholas J. and Ekelund, Ulf (2013) Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 97 (5), 1020-1028. (doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.045088). (PMID:23553158)

Record type: Article

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Detailed associations between physical activity (PA) subcomponents, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE: We examined the magnitude of associations between objectively measured PA subcomponents and sedentary time with body composition in 4-y-old children.

DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 398 preschool children recruited from the Southampton Women's Survey. PA was measured by using accelerometry, and body composition was measured by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Associations between light physical activity, moderate physical activity (MPA), vigorous physical activity (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) intensity; sedentary time; and body composition were analyzed by using repeated-measures linear regression with adjustment for age, sex, birth weight, maternal education, maternal BMI, smoking during pregnancy, and sleep duration. Sedentary time and PA were also mutually adjusted for one another to determine whether they were independently related to adiposity.

RESULTS: VPA was the only intensity of PA to exhibit strong inverse associations with both total adiposity [P < 0.001 for percentage of body fat and fat mass index (FMI)] and abdominal adiposity (P = 0.002 for trunk FMI). MVPA was inversely associated with total adiposity (P = 0.018 for percentage of body fat; P = 0.022 for FMI) but only because of the contribution of VPA, because MPA was unrelated to fatness (P ? 0.077). No associations were shown between the time spent sedentary and body composition (P ? 0.11).

CONCLUSIONS: In preschoolers, the time spent in VPA is strongly and independently associated with lower adiposity. In contrast, the time spent sedentary and in low-to-moderate-intensity PA was unrelated to adiposity. These results indicate that efforts to challenge pediatric obesity may benefit from prioritizing VPA.

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Published date: May 2013
Organisations: Faculty of Medicine

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 351919
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/351919
ISSN: 0002-9165
PURE UUID: b7df8af7-b679-41bf-b09a-41ef6e45b4f8
ORCID for Nicholas C. Harvey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8194-2512
ORCID for Keith M. Godfrey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4643-0618
ORCID for Hazel M. Inskip: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8897-1749
ORCID for Cyrus Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709

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Date deposited: 26 Apr 2013 13:45
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:58

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Contributors

Author: Paul J. Collings
Author: Soren Brage
Author: Charlotte L. Ridgway
Author: Hazel M. Inskip ORCID iD
Author: Cyrus Cooper ORCID iD
Author: Nicholas J. Wareham
Author: Ulf Ekelund

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