Research articleInfluence of Bouts of Physical Activity on Overweight in Youth
Introduction
Physical activity in children and youth, especially younger children, tends to be somewhat sporadic in nature rather than the structured and continuous physical activity that is typically observed in adults.1 For instance, while an active adult who participates in 45 minutes of daily physical activity may accumulate this in a single 45-minute session, a child who participates in 45 minutes of daily physical activity would tend to do so in a less programmatic manner by accumulating a few minutes of play here and there over the course of the day.
It is unknown whether these sporadic sessions of physical activity confer health benefits similar to those accrued in longer bouts of physical activity. Determining whether physical activity accrued in bouts offers additional health benefits has important public health implications with respect to the promotion of physical activity in children and youth. Current public health guidelines recommend that young people accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on a daily basis.2, 3 Stipulations have not been made regarding how the minutes should be accumulated.2, 3 If physical activity accrued in bouts has health benefits beyond the total volume of physical activity, the message for children and youth may need to be changed from accumulate at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity to accumulate at least 60 minutes of daily physical activity in bouts at least 5 minutes in duration.
The primary purpose of this study was to explore whether MVPA accrued in bouts predicted overweight and obesity in youth above and beyond what was predicted by the total volume of MVPA. Sporadic sessions of activity (1–4 minutes); short bouts of activity (5–9 minutes); and medium-to-long bouts of activity (≥10 minutes) were considered.
Section snippets
Study Sample
The study sample consisted of participants from the 2003–2004 and 2005–2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). The NHANES is a representative, cross-sectional survey of the U.S. population; each round of it is independent, and can be combined—as done here—to create a larger data set.4 NHANES participants were identified using a complex, stratified, multistage, probability-sampling design.4 The present study was limited to those aged 8–17 years who completed both the home
Results
Descriptive characteristics of the subjects are presented in Table 1. Complete measures on physical activity and adiposity were available for 2498 participants aged 8–17 years. Sporadic sessions accounted for 66% (60.4% in boys, 71.7% in girls) of the time spent engaging in MVPA. A total of 82.2% of youth engaged in at least one short bout (5–9 minutes) of MVPA on the average day, and 62.8% participated in at least one medium-to-long bout (≥10 minutes) of MVPA on the average day.
The
Discussion
The key finding of this study was that MVPA accrued in bouts predicted adiposity status independent of the total volume of MVPA. Additionally, longer bouts of MVPA had an effect on overweight above and beyond short bouts. Because of the large magnitude of effect for both short and medium-to-long bouts of MVPA on the likelihood of being overweight and the clear dose–response patterns for these relationships, these are compelling findings that speak to the importance of bouts of MVPA for
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