Proportion of infants meeting the Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years: data from the Melbourne InFANT Program

Abstract

BackgroundLittle information is available on the movement behaviours of infants, despite evidence that these are important for development. The release of new Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines provides an opportunity to document the current state of movement behaviours in infants relative to these guidelines. The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of 4 month old Australian infants meeting the 24-hour Movement Guidelines, individually, and in combination, and to describe associations with individual characteristics.MethodsMaternal report baseline data from the Melbourne Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial Program were used to determine prevalence of infants meeting physical activity (30 min of tummy time per day), sedentary behaviour (no more than 1 h at a time kept restrained; zero screen time), and sleep guidelines (14–17 h for 0–3 month olds or 12–16 h for 4–11 month olds). Prevalence of infants meeting combined guidelines was also described. The odds of meeting guidelines based on infant and family characteristics was determined.ResultsData are reported for 455 infants with a mean age of 3.6 months (SD = 1.0). The proportion of infants meeting each of the guidelines was 29.7% for tummy time, 56.9% for kept restrained, 27.9% for screen time, 58.7% for sleep and 3.5% for the combined guidelines (i.e. meeting all four guidelines). A significantly higher proportion of girls than boys met the screen time guideline (32.5% versus 24.0%, p = 0.04) and the combined guidelines (5.7% versus 1.6%, p = 0.01). Few associations were observed between infant and family characteristics and proportion of infants meeting individual guidelines.ConclusionsVery few infants met all of the guidelines contained in the new Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines suggesting there is much room for improvement in movement behaviours from early life. Fewer infants met the tummy time and screen time guidelines hence these appear to be the behaviours requiring most attention. Parents and others providing care to infants require support and strategies to assist them in adhering to the guidelines to ensure optimal health and development for the youngest in our population.

24-h movement behaviors from infancy to preschool: cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships with body composition and bone health

“…However, it is unlikely that questionnaires are sensitive enough to detect the marked night-to-night variability in sleep duration that is revealed when 24-h accelerometry analyses are used in children [ 14 ]. No studies have investigated 24-h movement behaviors in infants and toddlers using compositional analyses, although a small body of work has examined adherence to new physical activity guidelines [ 15 – 17 ]. Similarly, none have used more accurate measures of adiposity than BMI to determine relationships with compositional time use, nor investigated other facets of body composition such as bone health [ 3 ].…”

Physical Activity and Adiposity in a Racially Diverse Cohort of US Infants

“…Infants may not be engaging in adequate physical activity. A study of 455 infants in Australia found that most were not sufficiently active . Furthermore, a study of 90 young children in Canada, including some infants, found that the majority were sedentary during waking hours .…”

The association between screen time and cardiometabolic risk in young children

“…Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for screen time suggests that children under 1 year of age are not recommended to engage in any screen time, children 1 to 4 years are recommended to engage in no more than 1 h per day [5]. These align with guidelines from other countries, such as in Australia and New Zealand [6,7]. Studies show that more than 50 % of Canadian children aged 4 to 7 years exceed the screen time recommendations [4,[8][9][10].…”