New research shows an alarming trend towards sedentary lifestyles among those who should be moving the most for healthy development – toddlers.
The study, backed by The Kids Institute and UWA, investigated the proportion of children who met all three recommendations from the World Health Organization’s guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children aged under 5 years.
Only 14.3% of children met the recommended levels of physical activity, with a lower proportion in upper middle–income countries (11.9%) than in low and lower-middle–income, (16.6%) and high income (14.4%) countries.
Higher proportions meeting the guidelines were observed in Africa (23.9%) and Europe (23.5%), while the lowest proportion was found in North and South America (7.7%), and similar patterns of sex differences were noted across income groups and regions, with higher proportions of boys meeting the recommendations.
“Meeting these guidelines is associated with better adiposity status, psychosocial health, and motor skills in this age group,” lead author, Dr Kar Hau Chong, from the University of Wollongong, explained.
“This finding emphasizes the urgent need to address the surveillance and research gaps among underrepresented populations to strengthen the accountability of global health metrics and inform the development of more inclusive strategies to tackle movement behaviour inequalities.”
The guidelines, published in 2019, were based on an integrated movement behaviour paradigm which focussed on the co-dependency of these behaviours and their synergistic effects on health.
For children aged three to four years, they recommend participating in at least 180 minutes of physical activity (at least 60 of which should be of moderate to vigorous intensity), not spending more than one hour in sedentary screen time and having 10 to 13 hours of good-quality sleep in a 24-hour day.
The analytical sample included 7017 children with a mean age of 4.1 years, across 33 countries and data was collected using accelerometers, worn on the right hip or nondominant wrist during waking hours only or 24 h/d for at least 4 days.
Time spent in total physical activity and moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity were calculated using the best available device- and wear-site– specific cut points, and physical activity data was only included if children had at least 3 days of accelerometry data, with at least 6 hours of wear time per day between 5 AM and 11 PM.
Parents or caregivers were asked to report the total time their child spent using electronic media for recreational purposes on a typical day, and either their child’s total hours of sleep per night per 24- hour period (including naps) or typical sleep schedule.
“The proportion of children who met the sleep duration recommendation was nearly two times higher than that of physical activity and screen time recommendations,” Dr Chong said.
“Similar patterns were noted across income groups and regions except for North and South America, where the proportion meeting the physical activity recommendation was the highest. For both screen time and sleep duration recommendations, however, higher adherence was observed in girls than in boys – except for Africa and North and South America, where higher rates were reported in boys for sleep duration and screen time, respectively.