Association Of Sleep, Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, And Screen Time With Obesity Among Children In The Pediatric/ Endocrine Unit

Abstract

The frequency of stunting, pallor, zinc, and iron deficiencies serves as evidence that the globe is undergoing a rapid epidemiological and nutritional transition that is characterised by persistent nutritional insufficiencies. Objectives: Our study aimed to observe the association of physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, and screen time with obesity in children of our community. Methods: A case-control study was conducted at the Department of Pediatrics and Endocrinology from 1st September 2019 to 1st March 2020. Participants were healthy children from 5 to 15 years of age. The participants (overweight or obese) and controls were selected from the same population based on BMI. We divided the sedentary activity into less than 4 hours and more than 4 hours. Results: In this study, 53% of children were boys and 47% were girls with a mean age of 7.9 in the non-obese group and 8.9 in the obese group. The majority (75.5%) were age group less than or equal to 10 years. The participants with more sleeping time were 57% less likely to develop obesity (OR: 0.424 with 95% CI of 0.19-0.94, P-value: 0.03) whereas participants with more sedentary activity were 6% more likely to develop obesity (OR:6.38 with 95% CI of 2.49-16.38, P-value: <0.01). Conclusion: This study concluded that sedentary activity is significantly associated with overweight/obesity whereas sleep has negative relation with overweight/obesity making them, a potential risk factor for childhood obesity