Theme: The science of sedentary behavior
Health Risks, Correlates, and Interventions to Reduce Sedentary Behavior in Young People

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2011.05.001Get rights and content

Context

Opportunities for young people to be sedentary have increased during leisure time, study time, and transportation time.

Purpose

This review paper focuses on sedentary behaviors among young people aged 2–18 years and includes evidence of the relationship between sedentary behavior and health risk indicators, an overview of public health recommendations, the prevalence of key sedentary behaviors, evidence of correlates of sedentary behavior and the effectiveness of interventions to reduce sedentary behaviors.

Evidence acquisition

Although this is a narrative style review and not systematic, where possible, findings from relevant review papers were summarized and a search of more recent literature was performed using computer-based databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycINFO, Social Science Index, SportDiscus, and Health Reference Center – Academic.

Evidence synthesis

Young people spend 2–4 hours per day in screen-based behaviors and 5–10 hours per day sedentary. Ethnicity, sociodemographic status, having a TV set in the bedroom, and parental behavior appear to be the most consistent correlates of TV viewing time; however, few recent studies aiming to reduce TV viewing or sedentary time among young people have been successful.

Conclusions

A growing body of evidence supports the development of public health recommendations to limit the time spent in screen-based behaviors. More research is needed to examine the prospective and experimental evidence of associations between overall sedentary time and health, determinants of sedentary behaviors other than screen-based behaviors, and interventions to reduce overall sedentary time or even alternative sedentary behaviors, such as transport- or education-related sitting time.

Section snippets

Context

In 1971, the average age at which children began to watch TV was 4 years; today, it is 5 months.1 Electronic entertainment products are now omnipresent and increasingly affordable. Trends in electronic entertainment products in Canadian homes are presented in Figure 1 and provide clear evidence of a “screen invasion” over the past 20–30 years.2 Other dramatic lifestyle changes include increased dependence on cars,3 and a greater number of labor-saving devices in the home4 and at work. These

Evidence Acquisition

Although this is not a systematic review, where possible findings from relevant review papers were summarized and a search of more recent literature was performed using computer-based databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, ERIC, PsycINFO, Social Science Index, SportDiscus, and Health Reference Center – Academic. The search targeted primary research articles, systematic reviews, guidelines and/or recommendations, and consensus statements published up to and including March 2011 that reported

Evidence Synthesis

Despite most sedentary behavior prevalence studies focusing on children's screen time, U.S. time use data32 reported little change in TV viewing. This is consistent with the finding of a comprehensive review33 of the prevalence of screen-based behaviors between 1997 and 2005, which identified 90 studies and 539 independent samples of children aged 0–18 years. Approximately 34% of young people spent >2 hours per day watching TV. Studies34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 published after this review

Conclusion

Data suggest that the “sedentary age” has arrived and children spend much of their waking day sitting. Aggressive, evidence-informed multi-setting interventions are possibly required to reverse the trends of increasing sedentary behavior among children; however, there is still insufficient evidence of the importance of the environment in its association with sedentary behavior. The negative consequences of this trend have already been observed in many countries and this should be communicated

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