Novel patterns of physical activity in a large sample of preschool-aged children

Rachel M Ruiz, Evan C Sommer, Dustin Tracy, Jorge A Banda, Christina D Economos, Megan M JaKa, Kelly R Evenson, Maciej S Buchowski, Shari L Barkin, Rachel M Ruiz, Evan C Sommer, Dustin Tracy, Jorge A Banda, Christina D Economos, Megan M JaKa, Kelly R Evenson, Maciej S Buchowski, Shari L Barkin

Abstract

Background: Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), shown to be associated with health benefits, is not well-characterized in preschool-aged children. MVPA is commonly described as a threshold amount to achieve. We examined a novel way to characterize MVPA patterns in preschool-aged children by gender and age.

Methods: Preschool-aged children from Nashville, TN and Minneapolis, MN wore triaxial accelerometers. Four distinct MVPA patterns were identified: isolated spurt (IS), isolated sustained activity (ISA), clustered spurt (CS), and clustered sustained activity (CSA). Multivariable linear regression models were used to test associations of gender and age with each pattern.

Results: One thousand one hundred thirty-one children (3.9 years old, 51% girls, 30% overweight, 11% obese, and 76% Hispanic) wore accelerometers for 12.9 (SD = 1.4) hours/day for 6.7 (SD = 0.7) days. Children spent 53% of wear time in sedentary behavior and 13% in MVPA. On average, boys and girls achieved > 90 min/day of MVPA (98.2 min, SD = 32.3). Most MVPA (80%) was obtained in spurt-like (IS and CS) MVPA; however, girls spent a higher proportion of MVPA in IS and CS, and lower proportion of time in CSA (all p < 0.001). Controlling for gender, an increase of 1-year in age corresponded to a 1.5% increase in CSA (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: How MVPA was obtained varied depending on the gender and age of the child. On average, boys spent more time in sustained MVPA than girls and MVPA was more sustained in older children. Utilizing these patterns could inform PA practice and policy guidelines.

Trial registration: NCT01316653 , date of registration: March 3, 2011; NCT01606891, date of registration: May 23, 2012.

Keywords: Childhood obesity; Family; Latino; MVPA; Parent and child; Physical activity; Prevention.

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained prior to participation and protocols were approved by the Vanderbilt University (No. 120643) and the University of Minnesota (No. 1005S81634) Institutional Review Boards.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Average percent of total MVPA achieved through each specific pattern type (N = 1131). Because the distributions of all PA categories were non-normal, the following p-values are from non-parametric, two-sample, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney rank-sum tests of the null hypothesis that the distribution of girls is equal to the distribution of boys: IS p < 0.001, ISA p = 0.2, CS p < 0.001, CSA p < 0.001

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