Longitudinal Stability of Sedentary Behaviors and Physical Activity during Early Adolescence

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the stability of sedentary behaviors and physical activity in Estonian school children aged 11-12 year at the beginning of the study. In addition, the consequence of changes in sedentary behaviors on a change in physical activity was investigated. Adolescents (N = 345) completed the 3-Day Physical Activity Recall on four occasions over a 22-month period. Results indicated the curvilinear changes in sedentary behaviors and physical activity across time. There was a significant decrease in physical activity and an increase in sedentary behaviors across three years. Stability coefficients indicated a moderate differential stability of the sedentary behaviors (ranged from 0.31 to 0.64) and physical activity (ranged from 0.36 to 0.59) during early adolescence. Latent growth modeling indicated that increase in sedentary behaviors across a 22-month period was inversely associated with a change in physical activity. Interventions targeted at "high-risk" groups to reduce sedentary behaviors during early adolescence are encouraged.

Association between resting heart rate and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents

“…The use of self-reported measures for physical activity and sedentary behavior and the lack of objective vascular measures are important limitations that need to be considered. The reproducibility of the reliability coefficients for the objectively measured sedentary behaviors in the current study was only moderately reproducible but was similar to previous studies in adolescents [33,35]. Unfortunately, we could not objectively assess the pubertal status of the participants in this study.…”

Sedentary behavior in adolescents: the 11-year follow-up of the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study

“…Most studies on this theme have been done in developed countries like the United States and Australia 7,8,9,12,16 , with rare studies in developing countries. A positive aspect of this study is the threeway analysis of sedentary behavior.…”

“…However, there is strong evidence that greater exposure to sedentary behavior, especially electronic media time (TV, videogames, and computer) can have a harmful effect on health, in both adolescence 5 and adulthood 6 . Additionally, sedentary behavior shows moderate stability during childhood and adolescence, which is known as the tracking effect 7,8,9 .…”

Tracking of Physical Activity from Childhood to Adulthood: A Review

“…From studies using 3-day self-report with the same follow-up time, from 12 to 14 years, one reported low tracking (0.17-0.22) [13] and another one moderate tracking (0.30-0.42) [14]. A Finnish study following adolescents over 3 years from age 12 to 15 presented correlations in two cohorts of 0.51 and 0.53 for boys and 0.42 and 0.48 for girls.…”