Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children and Youth

Abstract

The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP), in partnership with the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group (HALO) at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, and in collaboration with ParticipACTION, and others, has developed the Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children (aged 5-11 years) and Youth (aged 12-17 years). The guidelines include a preamble to provide context, followed by the specific recommendations for sedentary behaviour. The entire development process was guided by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, which is the international standard for clinical practice guideline development. Thus, the guidelines have gone through a rigorous and transparent developmental process and the recommendations are based on evidence from a systematic review and interpretation of the research evidence. The final guidelines benefitted from an extensive online consultation process with 230 domestic and international stakeholders and key informants. The final guideline recommendations state that for health benefits, children (aged 5-11 years) and youth (aged 12-17 years) should minimize the time that they spend being sedentary each day. This may be achieved by (i) limiting recreational screen time to no more than 2 h per day - lower levels are associated with additional health benefits; and (ii) limiting sedentary (motorized) transport, extended sitting time, and time spent indoors throughout the day. These are the first evidence-based Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for Children and Youth and provide important and timely recommendations for the advancement of public health based on a systematic synthesis, interpretation, and application of the current scientific evidence.

Active play: An important physical activity strategy in the fight against childhood obesity

“…27 Individual-level estimates were determined by looking at the differences in caloric expenditure of screen time (1.25 METS 28 ) and active play. This was done for a 60 minutes/day period as well as a period of time that corresponded to the difference between the benchmark for screen time (2 hours/day) 29 and the average daily screen time of 11-year-old Canadians (5.8 hours/day). 5,19,30 The 3.8-hour difference between the screen time benchmark and the average screen time of 11 year olds is consistent with the benchmark for active play, which is that children engage in active play for several hours daily.…”

Outdoor time, physical activity and sedentary time among young children: The 2012–2013 Canadian Health Measures Survey

“…4,5 Corresponding guidelines for children 5-17 years of age recommend at least 60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and no more than 2 hours of daily recreational screen time. 6,7 Nationally-representative data from the 2009-2013 Canadian Health Measures Surveys (CHMS) indicated that 73% of 3-4 year olds met the PA guidelines, but only 22% met the screen time recommendation. 8 Compliance with the PA guidelines was much lower in 5 year olds (30%), although 76% met the screen time guideline.…”

Increasing Canadian paediatricians’ awareness and use of the new Canadian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for ages 0 to 17 years

“…For the physical activity guidelines, it is recommended that children aged <1 year are physically active several times a day (5), children aged 2-4 years are physically active at any intensity for at least 180 minutes a day (5), and children and youth aged 5-17 years are physically active at moderate-to vigorous-intensity for at least 60 minutes a day (8). For the sedentary behaviour guidelines, it is recommended children aged <2 years engage in no screen time (6), children 2-4 years engage in under 1 hour a day of screen time (6), and children 5-17 years engage in 2 hours a day or less of recreational screen time (7).…”