Objective assessment of levels and patterns of physical activity in preschool children

Abstract

Background:The aim of this study was to examine in detail levels and patterns of physical activity in preschool children and the effects of gender and BMI on this activity. Methods: Two hundred and fifty-three children aged 5 y participating in the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood wore an accelerometer day and night over a 4-wk period. The main outcome measure was level of physical activity using the raw data. A secondary measure was time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A Fourier series analysis was applied to study in detail patterns over time. results: Activity profiles throughout the year were unique for each sex, with boys being overall more active than girls except for winter months. Preschool children also showed distinct patterns of physical activity during weekdays as compared with weekends and were most active during weekdays. Preschool children in the highest tertile of BMI had a flat yearly activity profile and tended to be less active as compared with those in the lowest tertile. conclusion: Preschool children showed significant gender differences in physical activity, with distinct patterns throughout the year as well as between weekdays and weekends. A high BMI tended to be associated with lower levels of physical activity.

Physical activity and motor skills in children attending 43 preschools: a cross-sectional study

“…Our finding of higher PA levels during weekdays compared to weekend days are in line with both a Danish preschool study [14], and a school study [48]. Previous preschool studies from other countries have primarily reported findings consistent with ours [10, 14, 45], or reported no difference between day types [15, 42, 46]. Only a few studies have reported the opposite result, i.e.…”

“…Only a few studies have investigated variations in PA over all seven days of the week (Monday–Sunday) in preschool-aged children [42, 43], whereas a number of studies have studied differences in PA between weekends and weekdays [10, 14, 15, 42, 44–47]. Our finding of higher PA levels during weekdays compared to weekend days are in line with both a Danish preschool study [14], and a school study [48]. Previous preschool studies from other countries have primarily reported findings consistent with ours [10, 14, 45], or reported no difference between day types [15, 42, 46].…”

“…So far, only a few studies have provided information on preschool children’s PA level across day types, time of day, and preschool and leisure settings [10, 14–16]. The results of these studies could be significantly influenced by sociocultural factors such as cross-cultural variations in the organization of a preschool day [8–10], and different attitudes and expectations about children’s cross-gender behaviour [17].…”

Weekday-weekend patterns of physical activity and screen time in parents and their pre-schoolers

“…Regarding the assessment of participants’ PA patterns, in line with previous findings preschool boys were slightly more active than girls [21, 58], and children were slightly more active than parents [21, 51]. However, unlike previous pedometer-based studies [58, 59] in children and fathers there were no significant differences between weekdays and weekends PA.…”

Psychosocial Quality-of-Life, Lifestyle and Adiposity: A Longitudinal Study in Pre-schoolers (Ballabeina Study)

“…The QOL-fatty food association was sex dependent, with an increased fatty food intake occurring only in girls with low emotional QOL. Indeed, a previous study reported effects of unhealthy food on emotional eating mainly in girls [52] and sex differences have been reported in lifestyle-related reactions [53][54][55]. Other individual differences that might mask an overall QOL effect are psychological eating behaviour (only in emotional eaters), behavioural preferences (only in TV lovers) and biological reactivity [10,[20][21][22].…”