Patterns of objectively measured sedentary time in 10- to 12-year-old Belgian children: an observational study within the ENERGY-project

Abstract

BackgroundThis study examined the frequency of and differences in sedentary bouts of different durations and the total time spent in sedentary bouts on a weekday, a weekend day, during school hours, during after-school hours and in the evening period in a sample of 10- to 12-year-old Belgian children.MethodsAccelerometer data were collected as part of the ENERGY-project in Belgium (n = 577, 10.9 ± 0.7 years, 53% girls) in 2011. Differences in total sedentary time, sedentary bouts of 2–5, 5–10, 10–20, 20–30 and ≥30 min and total time accumulated in those bouts were examined on a weekday, a weekend day, during school hours, during after-school hours and in the evening period, using multilevel analyses in MLwiN 2.22.ResultsMore than 60% of the participants’ waking time was spent sedentary. Children typically engaged in short sedentary bouts of 2–5 and 5–10 min, which contributed almost 50% towards their total daily sedentary time. Although the differences were very small, children engaged in significantly fewer sedentary bouts of nearly all durations during after-school hours compared to during school hours and in the evening period. Children also engaged in significantly fewer sedentary bouts of 5–10, 10–20, and 20–30 min per hour on a weekend day than on a weekday.ConclusionsAlthough primary school children spend more than 60% of their waking time sedentary, they generally engaged in short sedentary bouts. Children’s sedentary bouts were slightly longer on weekdays, particularly during school hours and in the evening period, although the differences were very small. These results suggest that in this age group, interventions focusing on reducing total sedentary time rather than interrupting prolonged sedentary time are needed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12887-017-0894-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Pattern of sedentary behavior in brazilian adolescents

“…Direct comparisons between the studies regarding the Breaks (breaks/hour) 11.3 ± 2.5 11.7 ± 2.4 11.6 ± 2.3 11.5 ± 2.5 11.6 ± 2.5 *p < 0.05. . The high sedentary time in the sample of the present study was mostly accumulated through bouts of short duration (< 10min), which corroborates with previous studies 9,23 . However, findings from this research revealed that Brazilian adolescents accumulate, on average, three times the sedentary time in prolonged bouts (≥ 30 min) when compared to adolescents from developed countries 9,23 .…”

“…The high sedentary time in the sample of the present study was mostly accumulated through bouts of short duration (< 10min), which corroborates with previous studies 9,23 . However, findings from this research revealed that Brazilian adolescents accumulate, on average, three times the sedentary time in prolonged bouts (≥ 30 min) when compared to adolescents from developed countries 9,23 . In these studies, the time accumulated in sedentary bouts decreased linearly from the shortest to the longest bouts, while in our sample the decrease was observed until intermediate bouts (10-14 min), after which there were important increases.…”

“…The excessive daily time in sedentary activities in the students of the present study is at least similar to those observed in adolescents from developed countries 5,9,23 . Direct comparisons between the studies regarding the Breaks (breaks/hour) 11.3 ± 2.5 11.7 ± 2.4 11.6 ± 2.3 11.5 ± 2.5 11.6 ± 2.5 *p < 0.05. .…”

“…Padrão do comportamento sedentário em adolescentes brasileiros AUTHOR sense, international surveys indicate that adolescents accumulate more than 60% of their time in sedentary activities, with about 50% of this time accumulated in bouts of short duration (≤ 10 min) 9 and that this pattern tends to become more unfavorable over time 10 . In Brazilian adolescents, sedentary behavior has been extensively studied 11 .…”

“…Brazilian school children spend a significant portion of their daily time in school (about a third of the period when they are awake), an environment in which the pattern of sedentary behavior tends to manifest itself differently when compared to the period outside of school, by means of a greater number of prolonged bouts (> 30 min) and fewer breaks 13 . This fact may impact directly on estimates of sedentary behavior patterns on school days (weekdays) and non-school days (weekend days), although this relationship is not yet clearly evidenced in the literature 9,10,14,15 . The present study aimed to characterize the pattern of sedentary behavior (volume, bouts, and breaks) of Brazilian adolescents over a week, on weekdays and at weekends, as well as in the school and non-school periods.…”