Patterns of Sedentary Behaviour in 7-11 Year Old Children

Purpose To describe the patterns of sedentary behaviour (SB) across the day and explore relationships with body composition and fitness.

Methods 249 children (mean age 8.8 yrs; 56% female) wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer for 7 days, completed a 20m shuttle run fitness test and had triceps and subscapular skinfolds measured. SB was defined as

Results Approximately two thirds of any interval is spent in SB (67-69%), except during lunchtime where 51% of time is SB. Although children spend a large proportion of their time sedentary, they accumulate this with a large number of relatively short bouts with the maximum being 13 mins. The maximum length of a SB bout was lower at lunchtimes compared to other intervals (5.1 mins v ~13 mins). SB patterns across the whole day were similar for weekend and weekdays. Girls spend more time in SB at all intervals except after-school. Significant relationships were only observed between lunchtime SB and sum of skinfolds and fitness. Those with high SB at lunchtime had lower physical activity and higher SB across the rest of the day.

Conclusions Children spend the majority of their time in SB. Lunchtimes are the least sedentary period of the day, and those who are most sedentary during this time may be a particular target for intervention.