Tracking Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Childhood: A Systematic Review
Section snippets
Context
The short- and long-term health consequences associated with low levels of physical activity and excessive time spent in sedentary behavior within the first 5 years of life have been recently documented.1, 2 In response to these known consequences, physical activity and sedentary behavior guidelines for young children (aged 0–5 years) have recently been developed by several countries.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 These recommend that young children accumulate at least 2 or 3 hours of physical activity every
Definition of Early Childhood
In the current review, early childhood refers to children aged≤5.9 years and childhood refers to children aged 6–11 years. These age ranges are similar to those used in other reviews and original studies.8, 11, 12
Identification and Selection of Literature
A literature search of studies published between January 1980 and April 2012 reporting on tracking of physical activity or sedentary behavior from early childhood through to childhood was conducted in seven electronic databases (ERIC [Ovid], Medline [Ovid], Health Reference Centre
Identification and Selection of the Literature
Figure 1 shows how studies were selected for evaluation. Eleven papers were included in the review: six8, 9, 12, 15, 17, 18 were based in the U.S., three7, 16, 19 in the United Kingdom, and one each in Japan20 and New Zealand.21 The mean sample size was 358 (range 42–1797) and the mean baseline age ranged from 1.5 years to 5.6 years. All of the studies, except one,18 tracked physical activity and/or sedentary behaviors over a period of≤3 years. Five studies7, 15, 19, 20, 21 tracked physical
Discussion
This is the first systematic review to exclusively focus on tracking of physical activity and sedentary behavior during early childhood and from early childhood to middle childhood. There was evidence of moderate tracking during early childhood and from early childhood to middle childhood for both physical activity and sedentary behavior (i.e., trends in tracking were similar during early childhood and during the transition period from early childhood to childhood). Sedentary behavior appears
Acknowledgements
ADO is supported by a National Heart Foundation of Australia Career Development Fellowship (CR11S 6099).
JS is supported by a National Health & Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellowship (APP1026216)
No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this manuscript.
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