Trends of overweight and obesity, physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Czech schoolchildren: HBSC study

Abstract

Background: The decline of physical activity (PA) and the increased prevalence of overweight and obese children have been discussed worldwide. This study assessed the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, PA and sedentary behaviour in Czech school-aged children. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire from the Czech Republic was administered in cycles in 2002, 2006 and 2010 under the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study. In the study, 14 219 children aged 11–15 years participated. Results: In comparison with 2002, there is a significant increase (P < 0.01) of obese and overweight boys in 2010. The same trend has been recorded in girls, except those in the 13-year-old group. There has been a significant decline (P < 0.05) in meeting PA recommendations in 11-year-old girls and boys and in 13-year-old girls when comparing the 2006 and 2002 data. In 2010, we found a non-significant increase or stagnation of the share of children meeting the PA recommendation compared with 2006. We found an increasing length of sedentary time for children. There were significant associations between>2 h being spent sitting by a TV or PC and consuming fruit and vegetables (negative associations) or sweets and sweetened lemonades (positive associations). Conclusions: An increasing percentage of obese or overweight children, increased sedentary time and a decline or stagnation of the proportion of children meeting recommendations for PA were found among Czech schoolchildren. Future research should evaluate PA recommendations with respect to gender, age and effective intervention approach to reduce the obesity incidence in childhood.

Systematic review of sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth: an update

“…The remaining 9 studies for screen time, 13 studies for TV viewing, and 1 study for total sedentary behaviour reported null findings. Within 19 studies, significant associations with body composition were not observed across all sex groups (Dupuy et al 2011;Hardy et al 2012;Ismailov and Leatherdale 2010;Jones et al 2010;Mejia et al 2013;Nigg et al 2011;Rey-Lopez et al 2012;Sigmundova et al 2014;Suglia et al 2013;Vaezghasemi et al 2012), ethnic groups (Saab et al 2011), age groups (de Jong et al 2013;Seo and Niu 2014;Zhang et al 2012), geographical locations (Taber et al 2012;Tambalis et al 2013), days of the week (Liou et al 2010), or measures of body composition (Kuriyan et al 2012;Sluyter et al 2013). Inconsistent findings were observed for doing homework and reading and primarily null findings were observed for accelerometer-derived sedentary time, breaks, and bouts as well as computer use, and video game use with body composition.…”

Age and Gender Differences in Prevalence of Screen Based Behaviour, Physical Activity and Health Complaints among Slovak School-aged Children

“…Differences in excessive screen time were observed among girls and boys. While boys use computer more frequently than girls, in case of excessive watching TV, they do not differ, as the TV viewing is the most popular screen activity in leisure time among youth at all (21). Generally, more common activities among boys in comparison with girls are the internet or noninternet computer gaming and other similar computer use (19) which could impact higher amounts of overall screen time among boys (18).…”

“…The interest in sedentary behaviour, physical activity as well as health is still growing (17)(18)(19)(20), but there are only few studies reporting findings from Central European countries (21,22). However, in these countries, including Slovakia, are observed negative trends of lifestyle among adolescents in terms of increasing sedentary behaviour at the expense of physical activity and health complaints in comparison with other countries in Europe (23,24).…”

Physical activity of female students in secondary schools in the context of physical activity recommendations fulfilment

“…On the basis of the presented data, we monitored physical activity recommendations fulfilment per week in accordance with the following criteria: performing vigorous physical activity minimally 3 times per week for 20 minutes (V 3 × 20), performing medium physical activity minimally 5 times per week for 30 minutes (M 5 × 30), continual walking minimally 5 times per week for 30 minutes (W 5 × 30), and daily physical activity for 60 minutes (Sum 7 × 60) [26].…”