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Activity behaviors in British 6-year-olds: cross-sectional associations and longitudinal change during the school transition

Activity behaviors in British 6-year-olds: cross-sectional associations and longitudinal change during the school transition
Activity behaviors in British 6-year-olds: cross-sectional associations and longitudinal change during the school transition
To explore activity behaviors at school entry, we describe temporal/demographic associations with accelerometer-measured physical activity in a population-based sample of British 6-year-olds, and examine change from ages 4 to 6. Methods: A total of 712 six-year-olds (308 at both ages) wore Actiheart accelerometers for ≥3 (mean 6.0) days. We derived minutes per day sedentary (<20 cpm) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA, ≥460 cpm), also segmented across mornings (06:00 AM to 09:00 AM), school (09:00 AM to 3:00 PM), and evenings (3:00 PM to 11:00 PM). Using mixed effects linear regression, we analyzed associations between temporal/demographic factors and children’s activity intensities at age 6, and change between ages 4 and 6. Results: Six-year-old children engaged in MVPA (mean [SD]): 64.9 (25.7) minutes per day (53% met UK guidelines). Girls did less MVPA than boys, particularly during school hours. Children were less active on weekends (vs weekdays) and more active on spring/summer evenings (vs winter). Longitudinally, 6-year-old children did less light physical activity (−43.0; 95% confidence interval, −47.5 to −38.4 min/d) but were more sedentary (29.4; 24.6 to 34.2), and engaged in greater MVPA (7.1; 5.2 to 9.1) compared to when they were aged 4. Conclusion: Half of 6-year-old children met current activity guidelines; MVPA levels were lower in girls and at weekends. UK children became more sedentary but did more MVPA as they entered formal schooling. Physical activity promotion efforts should capitalize on these changes in MVPA, to maintain positive habits.
accelerometer, cohort, movement behavior, preschool, sedentary
1543-3080
558 - 565
Hesketh, Kathryn R.
548af96f-db9e-499d-b2f9-bdd2af55ce5f
Brage, Soren
3705fa6b-2018-4ad6-9143-fa9240ec0fc9
Inskip, Hazel
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Crozier, Sarah
9c3595ce-45b0-44fa-8c4c-4c555e628a03
Godfrey, Keith
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Harvey, Nicholas
ce487fb4-d360-4aac-9d17-9466d6cba145
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
van Sluijs, Esther M.F.
5780f1b8-f519-45dd-903f-7a21b9ecad32
Hesketh, Kathryn R.
548af96f-db9e-499d-b2f9-bdd2af55ce5f
Brage, Soren
3705fa6b-2018-4ad6-9143-fa9240ec0fc9
Inskip, Hazel
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Crozier, Sarah
9c3595ce-45b0-44fa-8c4c-4c555e628a03
Godfrey, Keith
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Harvey, Nicholas
ce487fb4-d360-4aac-9d17-9466d6cba145
Cooper, Cyrus
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
van Sluijs, Esther M.F.
5780f1b8-f519-45dd-903f-7a21b9ecad32

Hesketh, Kathryn R., Brage, Soren, Inskip, Hazel, Crozier, Sarah, Godfrey, Keith, Harvey, Nicholas, Cooper, Cyrus and van Sluijs, Esther M.F. (2022) Activity behaviors in British 6-year-olds: cross-sectional associations and longitudinal change during the school transition. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 19 (8), 558 - 565. (doi:10.1123/jpah.2021-0718).

Record type: Article

Abstract

To explore activity behaviors at school entry, we describe temporal/demographic associations with accelerometer-measured physical activity in a population-based sample of British 6-year-olds, and examine change from ages 4 to 6. Methods: A total of 712 six-year-olds (308 at both ages) wore Actiheart accelerometers for ≥3 (mean 6.0) days. We derived minutes per day sedentary (<20 cpm) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA, ≥460 cpm), also segmented across mornings (06:00 AM to 09:00 AM), school (09:00 AM to 3:00 PM), and evenings (3:00 PM to 11:00 PM). Using mixed effects linear regression, we analyzed associations between temporal/demographic factors and children’s activity intensities at age 6, and change between ages 4 and 6. Results: Six-year-old children engaged in MVPA (mean [SD]): 64.9 (25.7) minutes per day (53% met UK guidelines). Girls did less MVPA than boys, particularly during school hours. Children were less active on weekends (vs weekdays) and more active on spring/summer evenings (vs winter). Longitudinally, 6-year-old children did less light physical activity (−43.0; 95% confidence interval, −47.5 to −38.4 min/d) but were more sedentary (29.4; 24.6 to 34.2), and engaged in greater MVPA (7.1; 5.2 to 9.1) compared to when they were aged 4. Conclusion: Half of 6-year-old children met current activity guidelines; MVPA levels were lower in girls and at weekends. UK children became more sedentary but did more MVPA as they entered formal schooling. Physical activity promotion efforts should capitalize on these changes in MVPA, to maintain positive habits.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 21 June 2022
Published date: 11 August 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors thank the participants in the SWS for their commitment to and involvement in the study, and the dedicated team of research nurses and ancillary staff for their assistance in collecting and processing the data. In addition, the authors thank Kate Westgate and Stefanie Hollidge from the physical activity technical team at the MRC Epidemiology Unit for their assistance in processing the accelerometer data. The authors also thank Stephen Sharp for his statistical advice. Funding: This work was conducted by the Medical Research Council (unit program number MC_UU_12015/3 and MC_UU_12015/7) and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research, a UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, are gratefully acknowledged (Centre for Diet and Activity Research grant numbers: ES/G007462/1, 087636/Z/08/Z, and MR/K023187/1). The work of Cooper, Godfrey, Harvey, Inskip, and Crozier was supported by funding from the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, the UK Food Standards Agency, Arthritis Research UK, National Osteoporosis Society, International Osteoporosis Foundation, Cohen Trust, the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013), EarlyNutrition project under grant agreement number 289346, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 733206, LIFE-CYCLE project, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, and National Institute of Health Research Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Oxford. Godfrey is supported by the NIHR as an NIHR Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0515-10042). Funding Information: Hesketh is funded by the Wellcome Trust (107337/Z/15/Z). Conflicts of Interests: Cooper received personal fees from Alliance for Better Bone Health, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GSK, Medtronic, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, Takeda, and UCB. Godfrey has received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec, BenevolentAI Bio Ltd, and Danone. Harvey reports personal fees; consultancy; lecture fees; and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, AMGEN, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, Shire, UCB, Radius Health, Consilient Healthcare, Kyowa Kirin, and Internis Pharma, outside the submitted work. The remaining authors report no conflicts of interest. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Human Kinetics Publishers Inc.. All rights reserved.
Keywords: accelerometer, cohort, movement behavior, preschool, sedentary

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 468939
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468939
ISSN: 1543-3080
PURE UUID: fb20ec43-f666-4a57-bae9-bf0aa15501c3
ORCID for Hazel Inskip: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8897-1749
ORCID for Sarah Crozier: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9524-1127
ORCID for Keith Godfrey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4643-0618
ORCID for Nicholas Harvey: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8194-2512
ORCID for Cyrus Cooper: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-0709

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Sep 2022 17:01
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:59

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Contributors

Author: Kathryn R. Hesketh
Author: Soren Brage
Author: Hazel Inskip ORCID iD
Author: Sarah Crozier ORCID iD
Author: Keith Godfrey ORCID iD
Author: Nicholas Harvey ORCID iD
Author: Cyrus Cooper ORCID iD
Author: Esther M.F. van Sluijs

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