No abstract

The design and implementation of strategies to promote physical activity for health among children and adolescents and older adults, particularly girls/women, should be encouraged.

Breaking-up sedentary time is associated with better physical function in older adults; and, it may have an important place in future guidelines on preserving older adults' physical function to support activities of daily living.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to pool, harmonise and re-analyse national accelerometer data from adults in four European countries in order to describe population levels of sedentary time and physical inactivity.MethodsFive cross-sectional studies were included from England, Portugal, Norway and Sweden. ActiGraph accelerometer count data were centrally processed using the same algorithms. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the associations of sedentary time and physical inactivity with sex, age, weight status and educational level, in both the pooled sample and the separate study samples.ResultsData from 9509 participants were used. On average, participants were sedentary for 530 min/day, and accumulated 36 min/day of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity. Twenty-three percent accumulated more than 10 h of sedentary time/day, and 72% did not meet the physical activity recommendations. Nine percent of all participants were classified as high sedentary and low active. Participants from Norway showed the highest levels of sedentary time, while participants from England were the least physically active. Age and weight status were positively associated with sedentary time and not meeting the physical activity recommendations. Men and higher-educated people were more likely to be highly sedentary, while women and lower-educated people were more likely to be inactive.ConclusionsWe found high levels of sedentary time and physical inactivity in four European countries. Older people and obese people were most likely to display these behaviours and thus deserve special attention in interventions and policy planning. In order to monitor these behaviours, accelerometer-based cross-European surveillance is recommended.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0658-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Femoral neck strength is higher in boys than girls. Vigorous intensity emerged as the main physical activity predictor of femoral neck strength but did not explain gender differences. Daily vigorous physical activity for at least approximately 25 minutes seems to improve femoral neck bone health in children.

Previous bone comparison studies between subjects with and without Down syndrome (DS) were performed using bone mineral density (BMD) as the dependent variable, and mainly focused on lumbar spine region. The purpose of this study was to compare bone mineral mass adjusted for bone and body size, in limbs, lumbar spine, and femoral neck between males and females with and without DS. Subjects were 66 females (33 with DS) and 68 males (34 with DS) aged 14-40 years. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the main and interaction effects of gender and condition on bone mineral mass. For this purpose, adjusted bone mineral content (BMC) (for bone area, height, and age), volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) (for age), and composite indices of femoral neck strength (for age), were used as the dependent variables, corrected additionally for body composition variables selected by regression analysis. ANCOVA revealed lower lumbar spine vBMD in DS than in control subjects with (-5%, P = 0.013), or without body weight adjustments (-6%, P = 0.003). In femoral neck, the mean of each strength measure was also lower in DS than in control subjects. Mean differences between groups were, with and without additional adjustments for fat mass, respectively, -8% (P = 0.009), and -13% (P < 0.001) for compressive strength, -11% (P = 0.036), and -16% (P = 0.004) for bending strength, and -7% (P = 0.031), and -11% (P = 0.002) for impact strength. These lumbar spine and femoral neck differences between groups were highest in young adults (> 20 years) and not significant in adolescents. No interaction effect was observed between gender and condition. In conclusion, DS was shown to be a risk factor for low vBMD in lumbar spine, and for diminished bone strength relative to the loads that the femoral neck must bear. Body composition did not reach statistical significance as predictor of bone differences in these sites between subjects with and without DS, suggesting that other factors may be involved in this detrimental bone status, particularly in young adults compared with adolescents.

The prevalence for overweight/obesity among Portuguese children and adolescents vary according to the cut-off points used and are also of concern requiring strategies to promote healthy weight gain among children and adolescents.

This study aimed to produce age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference data for Portuguese youth; to report the prevalence of youth in the healthy zone of physical fitness according to the FITNESSGRAM(®) criteria; to verify the agreement between the Portuguese physical fitness percentiles and the FITNESSGRAM(®) healthy zones. In 2008, 22,048 Portuguese children and adolescents (10-18 years) were evaluated. Physical fitness (curl-ups, push-ups, 20-m shuttle run and modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests) was evaluated using the FITNESSGRAM(®) Test Battery 8.0. Smoothed percentile curves were estimated using Cole's LMS method. Boys consistently outperformed girls in every physical fitness test, except for the modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests. In both sexes and for all physical fitness tests, higher percentile values were observed at older ages. The 50th percentile of all physical fitness tests had the highest accuracy to discriminate between under healthy zone and healthy zone of the FITNESSGRAM(®). Portuguese schools and physical education teachers may considerer the 50th percentile for age and sex or the FITNESSGRAM(®) criteria for classifying participants in the healthy zone as acceptable cut-offs, above which youth should be considered fit. These reference values can be used as normative data and for baseline values for subsequent surveillance of the physical fitness of Portuguese youth.