Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess associations between habitual school-day breakfast consumption, body mass index (BMI), physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). Methods: BMI, PA and CRF were measured in 4326 schoolchildren aged 10-16 years. Participants were classified as obese or non-obese, as having low or high PA and CRF. Habitual school-day breakfast consumption was assessed by a questionnaire and classified as never, sometimes or always. Results: Participants who sometimes ate breakfast were more likely to be obese than those who always did (Po0.05). Boys who never ate breakfast were more likely to have low PA odds ratio (OR) 2.17, 95% CI 1.48-3.18) and low CRF (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.40-2.93) than those who always did. Compared with those who always did so, girls were more likely to have low PA if they sometimes (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.13-1.70) or never (1.48 95% CI 1.06-2.05) ate breakfast, but the likelihood of low CRF was not different between groups. Conclusions: Habitual breakfast consumption is associated with healthy BMI and higher PA levels in schoolchildren. In boys, regularly eating breakfast is also associated with higher levels of CRF. The higher PA observed in habitual breakfast eaters may explain the higher CRF values observed. These positive health behaviours and outcomes support the encouragement of regular breakfast eating in this age group.

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The normative and criterion-referenced PAQ values may be used to standardize and categorize PAQ scores in future youth population studies.

BackgroundChildren with congenital heart disease (CHD) are thought to have low levels of physical activity (PA), but few studies have used objective measures of PA in this population.Methods and ResultsWe recruited patients with mild, moderate, and severe CHD and cardiac transplant recipients, aged 8 to 19 years, from pediatric cardiology clinics throughout British Columbia and Yukon, Canada. Participants were fitted with an ActiGraph accelerometer to be worn over the right hip for 7 days. Daily means were estimated for a variety of accelerometry‐derived metrics, including moderate‐to‐vigorous PA and percentage of sedentary time if they had at least 3 valid days of accelerometry data. Participants also completed a PA questionnaire. We included 90 participants (aged 13.6±2.7 years; 54% male), of which 26 had mild CHD, 26 had moderate CHD, 29 had severe CHD, and 9 were cardiac transplant recipients. Median daily moderate‐to‐vigorous PA was 43 min/day (interquartile range: 28.9–56.9 min/day), and 8% met PA guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate‐to‐vigorous PA at least 6 days a week. There were no significant differences in any accelerometry‐derived metric according to CHD severity. Boys were significantly more active and less sedentary than girls. Activity declined and sedentary behaviors increased with age in both sexes. Sports participation was common, including competitive out‐of‐school clubs (57%). PA restrictions from cardiologists were rare (15%).ConclusionsWe found normal age–sex patterns of PA in children with CHD. There were no differences in PA by CHD severity, suggesting that sociocultural factors are likely important determinants of PA in these children.