Tracking Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Childhood: A Systematic Review

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Context

To date, no reviews have investigated the evidence of tracking of physical activity and sedentary behavior specifically during early childhood (aged 0–5.9 years) or from early childhood to middle childhood (aged 6–12 years). It is important to review the evidence of tracking of these behaviors to determine their stability during the foundational early years of life.

Evidence acquisition

A literature search of studies was conducted in seven electronic databases (January 1980 to April 2012). Studies were compared on methodologic quality and evidence of tracking of physical activity or sedentary behavior. Tracking was defined as the stability (or relative ranking within a cohort) of behaviors, such as physical activity and sedentary behavior, over time.

Evidence synthesis

Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. All studies reporting physical activity outcomes had high methodologic quality; 71% of studies reporting sedentary behavior outcomes had high methodologic quality. Of the tracking coefficients for physical activity, 4% were large, 60% were moderate, and 36% were small. Of the tracking coefficients for sedentary behavior, 33% were large, 50% were moderate, and 17% were small. Overall, there was evidence of moderate tracking of physical activity during early childhood, and from early childhood to middle childhood, and of moderate-to-large tracking of sedentary behavior during early childhood and from early childhood to middle childhood.

Conclusions

This review highlights the importance of establishing recommended levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior during the early years of life. Based on this review, the following recommendations are made: (1) early childhood should be targeted as a critical time to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors through methodologically sound prevention studies; and (2) future tracking studies should assess a broad range of sedentary behaviors using objective measures.

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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