Associations Between Sedentary Behavior and Motor Coordination in Children

Aim This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between objectively measured sedentary behavior (SB) and motor coordination in Portuguese children, accounting for physical activity, accelerometer wear time, waist-to-height ratio, and mother’s education level.

Methods A cross-sectional school-based study was conducted on 213 children (110 girls and 103 boys) aged 9-10 in the north of Portugal during the spring of 2010. Accelerometers were used to obtain detailed objective information about daily physical activity and sedentary behavior over 5 consecutive days. Motor coordination was measured with a body coordination test (Körperkoordination Test für Kinder – KTK) [1]. Waist and height were measured by standardized protocols and the waist-to-height ratio was calculated. A questionnaire was used to assess mothers’ educational levels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and logistic regressions were used.

Results ROC analysis showed that sedentary time significantly discriminated between children with low motor coordination and high motor coordination, with a best trade off between sensitivity and specificity being achieved at ≥77.29% and ≥76.48% for girls and boys respectively (p<0.05 for both). In both genders, the low sedentary group had significantly higher odds of having good motor coordination than the higher sedentary group, independent of physical activity, accelerometer wear time, waist-to-height ratio, and mother’s education level (p<0.05 for both).

Conclusions Our findings suggested that physical activity levels per se may not overcome the deleterious influence of high levels of sedentary behavior on motor coordination. Our data stress the importance of discouraging sedentary behavior among children to improve motor coordination.

References [1] Kiphard El, Schiling F. 1974. Körperkoordination Test für Kinder, KTK. Beltz Test Gmbh. Weinheim.