The Impact of Temperature on 24-Hour Movement Behaviors among Chinese Freshmen Students

Abstract

Background: Human populations worldwide have experienced substantial climate change issues. Gaps in scientific literature remain regarding the relationship between temperature and 24-hour movement behavior among people. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of temperature on 24-hour movement behavior including physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB) and sleep duration among university students living in Beijing, China. Methods: We conducted follow-up health surveys on 44,693 freshmen students enrolled at Tsinghua University from 2012 to 2018. PA and SB were measured by using the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-s); sleep duration was estimated by using The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (CPSQI). Corresponding temperature data measured by the Beijing Meteorological Service were collected to include average daily temperature from the nearest weather station to Tsinghua university. The data were analyzed using linear individual fixed-effect regressions. Results: An increase in temperature (temperature range 2.29–28.73 °C) by 1 °C was associated with an increase in 0.66 weekly minutes of vigorous physical activity (VPA) (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.49, 0.82), an increase in 0.56 weekly minutes of moderate physical activity (MPA)(95% CI = 0.32, 0.79), an increase in 1.21 weekly minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (95% CI = 0.90, 1.53), an increase in 0.55 weekly minutes of walking (95% CI = 0.31, 0.78), an increase in 1.76 weekly minutes of total PA (95% CI = 1.35, 2.17), and a reduction in 1.60 weekly minutes of sleeping (95% CI = −2.09, −1.11). There was no significant correlation between temperature and sedentary behavior among participants. Conclusions: Temperature was significantly positively correlated with physical activity levels in the Chinese freshmen students, and significantly negatively correlated with sleep duration. Replication of this study is warranted among various populations within China. The evidence of this novel study focused on understanding the relationship between climate change and 24-hour movement behaviors among people for developing effective adaptation strategies to climate change to improve people’s health behavior. This study has important implications for future study, as knowledge of the impact of temperature on movement behavior may help in the interpretation of their results and translate into improving people’s health behavior.

Proportion of Chinese Children and Adolescents Meeting 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Associations with Overweight and Obesity

“…Using accelerometers to measure PA, 3 regional studies found that the proportion of children and adolescents in Tianjin was 1.2% [8], 1.0% in Hong Kong [9], and 22.6% in Shanghai. In addition, 5 other studies using questionnaires found that the proportion in China averaged 0.3-7% [10][11][12][13]. Due to the limitations of sample representativeness (regional samples) or research methods (questionnaire surveys), the above data cannot comprehensively and objectively reflect the compliance with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines in Chinese children and adolescents.…”

“…However, there are few relevant studies in the Chinese Mainland, and the conclusions are inconsistent. Wang et al [12] found that meeting the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines is not associated with overweight and obesity but that adequate SLP can help reduce the rate of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Chen et al [10] showed a different finding in their study, which indicated that children and adolescents who met the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines or a combination of the MVPA and SLP guidelines had a lower rate of overweight and obesity.…”

“…Chen et al [10] showed a different finding in their study, which indicated that children and adolescents who met the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines or a combination of the MVPA and SLP guidelines had a lower rate of overweight and obesity. The above two studies may have a large bias in using questionnaires to investigate PA, and the researchers also expressed the same concern regarding the limitation [10,12]. Therefore, more objective methods are needed to accurately evaluate the associations between compliance with the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and overweight and obesity in Chinese children and adolescents.…”