Associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity and body fatness in school-aged children

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, Apr 2017

Background The main aim of the study was to examine the cross-sectional associations between objectively measured physical activity (PA) and body fatness in 7–12-year-old children. Methods We performed an analysis of 365 children (209 girls). Participant recruitment was performed in eight randomly selected elementary schools in cities and towns with various numbers of inhabitants. The body composition analysis was performed according to a multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis; PA was monitored using an accelerometer. Results In terms of the overall PA, boys were more active than girls. No significant associations (unadjusted and adjusted models) were found between light PA and all body fatness indicators in either sex. Moderate-to-vigorous PA was significantly negatively associated with all body fatness indicators only in girls. These associations strengthened after adjustment for age, height and sedentary time (β ranging from –0.49 to –0.36, P ≤ 0.01). In contrast, vigorous PA was strongly negatively associated with body fatness indicators only in boys. In the fully adjusted model the significant negative associations were found for fat mass percentage (β = –0.15, P = 0.048) and fat mass index (β = –0.15, P = 0.040). Conclusions The present study suggests that increasing sex-specific PA of different intensities may be an appropriate approach for decreasing body fatness in children. Longitudinal studies are needed to verify these associations.

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Associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity and body fatness in school-aged children

Gába et al. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Associations between accelerometer- measured physical activity and body fatness in school-aged children Aleš Gába 0 Josef Mitáš 0 Lukáš Jakubec 0 0 Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University Olomouc , třída Míru 117, Olomouc 771 11 , Czech Republic Background: The main aim of the study was to examine the cross-sectional associations between objectively measured physical activity (PA) and body fatness in 7-12-year-old children. Methods: We performed an analysis of 365 children (209 girls). Participant recruitment was performed in eight randomly selected elementary schools in cities and towns with various numbers of inhabitants. The body composition analysis was performed according to a multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis; PA was monitored using an accelerometer. Results: In terms of the overall PA, boys were more active than girls. No significant associations (unadjusted and adjusted models) were found between light PA and all body fatness indicators in either sex. Moderate-to-vigorous PA was significantly negatively associated with all body fatness indicators only in girls. These associations strengthened after adjustment for age, height and sedentary time (β ranging from -0.49 to -0.36, P ≤ 0.01). In contrast, vigorous PA was strongly negatively associated with body fatness indicators only in boys. In the fully adjusted model the significant negative associations were found for fat mass percentage (β = -0.15, P = 0.048) and fat mass index (β = -0.15, P = 0.040). Conclusions: The present study suggests that increasing sex-specific PA of different intensities may be an appropriate approach for decreasing body fatness in children. Longitudinal studies are needed to verify these associations. Body composition; Body fat distribution; Body mass index; Pediatric obesity; Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity - Background During the last three decades, the global prevalence of obesity has doubled [1]. Although there is evidence for a slower increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in selected population groups in developed countries [2, 3], the number of individuals with overweight and obesity is rapidly increasing in middle- and low-income countries, particularly in urban settings [4]. It is estimated that more than 90 million of children aged 5–17 years will be obese by 2025 if effective policy interventions do not change the current trends [5]. For a long time, the Czech Republic has been among the European countries with a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in all age categories, and it is estimated that 18% of girls and 22.3% of boys younger than 20 years are overweight and obese [6]. A continuous increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Czech children and adolescents was observed between 1951 and 2001 [7, 8]; in the last decade, this trend was confirmed by the results of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study [9]. Scientific evidence clearly demonstrates that overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence have adverse consequences on premature mortality and physical morbidity in adulthood [10]. For this reason, limiting or even stopping the global increase in the prevalence of © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. childhood obesity is considered one of the main challenges of today’s society. Physical activity (PA) appears to be an important component for preventing obesity [11, 12]. Many authorities agree that children and adolescents should perform at least 60 min∙day−1 of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) [13–16]. Unfortunately 80% of youths do not meet this recommendation worldwide [17] and the transition from childhood to adolescence is accompanied by a significant decrease in habitual PA [18, 19]. Regarding the fact that PA is one of the main modifiable obesogenic behaviors, the associations between PA and body fatness have been widely studied. Unfortunately, comparing the results of different studies is challenging, especially due to inconsistences in the methods used for the assessment of body fatness and PA level. Several studies used simple anthropometric proxies for body fatness as outcomes (e.g. BMI, BMI z-score) and/or self-reported methods for PA assessment rather than more precise measures. The accuracy of self-reports remains still questionable; therefore, precise instruments must be (...truncated)


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Aleš Gába, Josef Mitáš, Lukáš Jakubec. Associations between accelerometer-measured physical activity and body fatness in school-aged children, Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 2017, pp. 43, Volume 22, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s12199-017-0629-4