Sedentary behavior patterns and adiposity in children: a study based on compositional data analysis

Abstract

Background: Between-person differences in sedentary patterns should be considered to understand the role of sedentary behavior (SB) in the development of childhood obesity. This study took a novel approach based on compositional data analysis to examine associations between SB patterns and adiposity and investigate differences in adiposity associated with time reallocation between time spent in sedentary bouts of different duration and physical activity. Methods: An analysis of cross-sectional data was performed in 425 children aged 7-12 years (58% girls). Waking behaviors were assessed using ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer for seven consecutive days. Multi-frequency bioimpedance measurement was used to determine adiposity. Compositional regression models with robust estimators were used to analyze associations between sedentary patterns and adiposity markers. To examine differences in adiposity associated with time reallocation, we used the compositional isotemporal substitution model. Results: Significantly higher fat mass percentage (FM%; β ilr1 = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.34; p = 0.040) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT; β ilr1 = 0.37; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.71; p = 0.034) were associated with time spent in middle sedentary bouts in duration of 10-29 min (relative to remaining behaviors). No significant associations were found for short (< 10 min) and long sedentary bouts (≥30 min). Substituting the time spent in total SB with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was associated with a decrease in VAT. Substituting 1 h/week of the time spent in middle sedentary bouts with MVPA was associated with 2.9% (95% CI: 1.2, 4.6), 3.4% (95% CI: 1.2, 5.5), and 6.1% (95% CI: 2.9, 9.2) lower FM%, fat mass index, and VAT, respectively. Moreover, substituting 2 h/week of time spent in middle sedentary bouts with short sedentary bouts was associated with 3.5% (95% CI: 0.02, 6.9) lower FM%. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that adiposity status could be improved by increasing MVPA at the expense of time spent in middle sedentary bouts. Some benefits to adiposity may also be expected from replacing middle sedentary bouts with short sedentary bouts, that is, by taking standing or activity breaks more often. These findings may help design more effective interventions to prevent and control childhood obesity.

Is adherence to the 24-hour movement guidelines associated with a reduced risk of adiposity among children and adolescents?

“…Our findings are in accordance with previously published studies reporting that meeting the ST recommendation is associated with lower odds of obesity whether or not PA and sleep recommendations are met [22,39]. It can be assumed that ST, a main contributor to the total SB, accumulates with a few prolonged uninterrupted sedentary periods, which are associated with excess adiposity independently of PA [40].…”

How do short sleepers use extra waking hours? A compositional analysis of 24-h time-use patterns among children and adolescents

“…Ortega and colleagues [ 55 ] found that morning tiredness is associated with lower odds of participating in leisure-time PA and higher odds of excessive screen time, which is in line with our findings. This SB pattern has been associated with increased risk of several adverse health outcomes among children and adolescents, such as adiposity [ 65 ] and cardiometabolic markers [ 66 , 67 ].…”

Using Compositional Data Analysis to Explore Associations Between Accumulation of Sedentary Behaviour and Physical Activity and Biomarkers of Cardiometabolic Health in Children and Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, no research has used compositional data analyses to examine bout durations across the activity spectrum, including both SED and PA bouts, to assess associations with a range of cardiometabolic outcomes. One study by Gába and colleagues [11] used a similar approach, yet only investigated SED bout durations alongside total volumes of other intensities, and associations with adiposity. Their results suggested bene ts to adiposity from replacing middle bouts (de ned as 10-29 min) with shorter SED bouts (1-9 min), yet found no associations for replacements with long bouts (≥ 30 min duration) [11].…”

“…One study by Gába and colleagues [11] used a similar approach, yet only investigated SED bout durations alongside total volumes of other intensities, and associations with adiposity. Their results suggested bene ts to adiposity from replacing middle bouts (de ned as 10-29 min) with shorter SED bouts (1-9 min), yet found no associations for replacements with long bouts (≥ 30 min duration) [11]. This contrasts with the present study that did not nd bene ts of engaging in a particular (shorter or longer) type of SED bouts.…”

“…Further, to our knowledge, there have been no studies, in either adults or youth, considering activity intensity and bout duration components across the activity spectrum simultaneously. Although a previous study investigated bout durations alongside total volumes using a compositional approach [11], and found some bene ts to adiposity from engaging in shorter versus longer SED bouts, it did not investigate other intensity patterns and health outcomes beyond adiposity. Consequently, this study aims to: 1) describe daily time-use compositions of 7-13 year-old youth, including time spent in longer and shorter SED and PA bouts; and 2) examine associations between time-use compositions with cardiometabolic risk biomarkers.…”