Physical Activity, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children. The Belgian Luxembourg Child Study II

Abstract

BJORNTORP, ANDRE LAMBERT. Physical activity, obesity, and cardiovascular risk factors in children. The Belgian Luxembourg Child Study 11. Obes Res. 1997;s:Physical activity was measured in relation to cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in a randomly selected population of 1028 children from Province de Luxembourg in Belgium, a mainly rural area with a high prevalence of such risk factors among adults and children. Physical activity was estimated as participation in sport activities, a major indicator of leisure-time physical activity in schoolchildren, and physical inactivity was estimated as frequency and duration of television (TV) watching. Boys participated more frequently in sport activities than girls did @=0.001). A majority of the children watched TV daily. After age adjustment, bodyweight (girls, pc0.012; boys, p<0.027) and, in boys, body mass index (BMI) Q~0.039) were related to days per week of TV watching. No significant relationships with other CV risk factors remained after adjustments for BMI. In analyses of independent contributions of age, TV watching, and sports activity on CV risk factors, age showed highly significant relationships. In boys, TV showed relationships with BMI @<0.04) and (borderline) with systolic blood pressure, independent of age and sports activity, whereas the latter was significantly related to subscapular skinfold @<0.04) and (borderline) with triceps GUILLAUME, MICHELE, LEIF LAPIDUS, PER 549-556.Submitted for publication November 2. 1995. skinfold and cholesterol. In girls, no significant independent contributions to risk factor associations were found. The father's education was directly associated with sports activities, whereas the mother being a housewife showed negative relationships to physical activity and positive to TV watching in their children, suggesting socioeconomic influence on the activity patterns of children. Furthermore, registrations suggested less physical activity in the most rural part of the area. It is concluded that children in this mainly rural area watch TV frequently. In boys, physical inactivity, measured both as TV watching and as registrations of sports activities, contributes independently to body fat mass. In girls, no contribution or weaker contributions of physical inactivity were found. This suggests that contributory factors leading to obesity might be different in girls and boys.

Child overweight in France and its relationship with physical activity, sedentary behaviour and socioeconomic status

“…Larger samples could have shown statistically significant sex differences. These differences have been observed in other studies (Guillaume et al, 1997;McMurray et al, 2000;Wagner et al, 2004;Kettaneh et al, 2005), which suggest that contributory factors leading to obesity may be different in girls and boys.…”

“…Of all these variables, Guillaume et al (1997) showed that leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) exhibits the largest variations among the different age and sex groups studied. Consequently, in the present study LTPA was chosen as an overall indicator.…”

“…Consequently, in the present study LTPA was chosen as an overall indicator. Watching TV and, more recently, playing video-games, are also components of leisure time and have been considered as a good indicator of sedentary behaviour (Guillaume et al, 1997).…”

Physical activity and sedentary behavior: a review of longitudinal studies of weight and adiposity in youth

“…80 In a study of Swiss children, each additional hour of video games played daily was associated with a doubling of obesity risk. 38 Similar significant relationships between sedentary behavior (usually TV) and increased adiposity have been seen cross-sectionally, 41,59,[80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88] with some suggestion that the relationship is getting stronger over time. 81 In a study of Australian children, however, after adjusting for covariates, there was no relationship between obesity and time spent with TV, video games, or computers.…”

Relationship between a range of sedentary behaviours and blood pressure during early adolescence

“…15 In a Belgian study of 1028 children aged 6-12 years, a borderline significant association was observed between TV viewing and systolic BP in boys but not girls. 16 In a Brazilian study of 4452 children aged 10-12 years, the authors reported a significant positive association between TV viewing and systolic and diastolic BP. 17 In a US study of 546 participants aged 4-17 years, children watching 2-4 h of TV had a 2.5 times higher odds of hypertension compared with children watching 0 to o2 h. 18 In contrast, a European study of 1921 participants aged 9-10 and 15-16 years demonstrated no significant associations between TV viewing and either systolic or diastolic BP.…”