Association of Reallocating Time in Different Intensities of Physical Activity with Weight Status Changes among Normal-Weight Chinese Children: A National Prospective Study

Abstract

Background: Time spent in different intensity-specific physical activities is codependent, but the substitution effect of different activities on weight status changes in children remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the prospective association between reallocating time in different intensities of physical activity and weight status changes among Chinese children. Methods: A national sample of 15,100 normal-weight children aged 7–18 years (46.7% boys) were recruited in September 2013 and followed up for nine months. Vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA), moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA), walking, and sedentary time were obtained by International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF). Height and weight were objectively measured, by which body mass index (BMI) and BMI z-score were calculated. Weight status was classified by the Chinese criteria for 7- to 18-year-old children. Isotemporal substitution analyses (including single-factor model, partition model, and isotemporal substitution model) were applied to examine the association of time allocation with weight status changes. Results: Each 30 min/day of increase in VPA was favorably associated with a 13.2% reduced risk of incident overweight/obesity in a single-factor model and a 15.6% reduced risk in a partition model. Negative associations were found between VPA, MPA, walking and the risk of being underweight in the single-factor model, but not in the partition model. In substitution models, replacing 30 min/day sedentary time with an equal amount of VPA was favorably associated with a 16.1% reduction of the risk of being overweight/obese. Conclusion: These findings highlight the need for promoting vigorous-intensity physical activity in children.

Vitamin D and depressive symptoms in an early adolescent cohort

“…Based on previous studies (Chi et al, 2020; Husmann et al, 2017; Namazi et al, 2021; Robinson et al, 2019; Weavers et al, 2021), we included sex, age at wave 1, residence area, only child, family structure, self-perceived family economic status, body mass index (BMI) at wave 1, moderate and high-intensity physical activity at wave 1, and self-perceived pubertal timing at wave 1 as potential confounders (see Table 1). The frequency of vigorous-intensity physical activity for 20 min and moderate physical activity for 30 min during the last week were asked at baseline (Hallal et al, 2012; Tan et al, 2020). Response options were coded for 0 days/week, one-two days, and ⩾three days.…”

The effect of replacing sedentary behavior by different intensities of physical activity in body composition: a systematic review

“…The sample of the included studies was heterogeneous, including truck drivers 21 , office workers 22 , children 14,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] , healthy pregnant women 32 , Inuit Greenlanders 33 , newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes 19 . However, the sample was mostly composed of white subjects and from the north hemisphere 14,19,24,25,27,30,[32][33][34] . Two studies were made with New Zealanders children 26,29 and one study with breast cancer survivors 35 .…”

“…One study used the effort perception scale coming from International Physical Activity Questionnaire -Short Form (IPAQ-SF) 30 .…”

“…The body composition was obtained by using bioimpedance [21][22][23]25,27,29,31,32 , plethysmography 14,24 , anthropometry 19,21,[32][33][34][35][36]22,23,[26][27][28][29][30][31] , ultrasound system 33 , and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry 27,28,34 .…”

Physical Fitness and Motor Competence in Chinese and German Elementary School Children in Relation to Different Physical Activity Settings

“…Although one might assume that any level of children’s PA is better than a sedentary lifestyle, our study focused on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA; [ 13 ]), as strong evidence exists that MVPA is not only positively associated with PF in children [ 14 , 15 ] but also an increase of the intensity from light-intensity to moderate-to-vigorous or even to vigorous PA is important to improve their PF [ 16 , 17 , 18 ] and body composition [ 19 , 20 ]. Furthermore, an increase of objectively measured time in MVPA reduces infant weight gain and diminishes the risk of adolescent obesity [ 21 , 22 ].…”