Proportion of preschool-aged children meeting the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and associations with adiposity: results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey

Abstract

BackgroundNew Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years have been released in 2017. According to the guidelines, within a 24-h period, preschoolers should accumulate at least 180 min of physical activity (of which at least 60 min is moderate-to-vigorous physical activity), engage in no more than 1 h of screen time, and obtain between 10 and 13 h of sleep. This study examined the proportions of preschool-aged (3 to 4 years) Canadian children who met these new guidelines and different recommendations within the guidelines, and the associations with adiposity indicators.MethodsParticipants were 803 children (mean age: 3.5 years) from cycles 2–4 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of Canadians. Physical activity was accelerometer-derived, and screen time and sleep duration were parent-reported. Participants were classified as meeting the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines if they met all three specific time recommendations for physical activity, screen time, and sleep. The adiposity indicators in this study were body mass index (BMI) z-scores and BMI status (World Health Organization Growth Standards).ResultsA total of 12.7% of preschool-aged children met the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, and 3.3% met none of the three recommendations. A high proportion of children met the sleep duration (83.9%) and physical activity (61.8%) recommendations, while 24.4% met the screen time recommendation. No associations were found between meeting individual or combined recommendations and adiposity.ConclusionsVery few preschool-aged children in Canada (~13%) met all three recommendations contained within the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines. None of the combinations of recommendations were associated with adiposity in this sample. Future work should focus on identifying innovative ways to reduce screen time in this population, and should examine the associations of guideline adherence with health indicators other than adiposity.

Proportion of kindergarten children meeting the WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep and associations with adiposity in urban Beijing

“…The proportion of children meeting the physical activity guidelines varies across countries. Our finding were close to one Canadian study with 803 pre-schoolers (61.8%) [24], whereases the proportion of pre-schoolers meeting physical activity guideline were much lower (19.3 and 11.0% respectively) in another Canadian (n = 539) [40] and Belgian study (n = 595) [25] but higher (93.1%) in one Australian study (n = 248) [41]. In addition, in a recent Chinese study with 3030 preschoolers, 72.9% of the children had at least 1 h of MVPA and 35.3% had at least 3 h of total physical activity [42].…”

“…The proportions of toddlers meeting no guidelines, individual movement behaviour guidelines and combinations of the guidelines are shown in a Venn diagram (Fig. 1), which is an adaption from previous studies [24,26]. The numbers within each circle added to the proportion of children meet individual guidelines: 65.4% of children met the physical activity guideline and 88.2% met the screen time guideline, whereas only 29.5% of the children met the sleep guideline.…”

“…Following the release of the Australian and Canadian 24-h movement behaviours guidelines, several studies from high-income countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium) were published, examining the proportion of young children who met the guidelines and if compliance was associated with adiposity [23][24][25][26]. With the release of the WHO global guidelines in April 2019, more research is needed in low-and middle-income countries, given that many of these countries will use the WHO global guidelines and also given the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in young children in these countries.…”

Nature Play and Fundamental Movement Skills Training Programs Improve Childcare Educator Supportive Physical Activity Behavior

“…Objective measurement of Australian preschool children's physical activity shows that only a third of children meet physical activity recommendations [3]. In Canada, 62% of preschool children meet physical activity recommendations [4] and in Belgium less than 20% of preschool aged children meet the recommended amount of physical activity per day [5]. Therefore, interventions to promote physical activity in the early years is paramount.…”

The Epidemic of Obesity and Poor Physical Activity Participation: Will We Ever See a Change?

“…The new Canadian 24-h Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (0-4 years) suggest that preschoolers should engage in at least 180 min per day of physical activities, 60 min of which should be moderate to vigorous daily physical activity [38]. Chaput et al reported that 38.2% of Canadian preschool children (mean age 3.5 years) were not meeting these physical activity recommendations [39]. When the Canadian 24-h Movement Guidelines were examined in an international sample of over 6000 children, the global prevalence of meeting the recommendations was only 7% [40].…”