Abstract
Background:
Physical activity in preschoolers is essential for their development, but screen media use could displace free active play. Due to the sporadic nature of young children's movements advancements in classifying sedentary and non-sedentary behavior are crucial for understanding the potential impact of screen media use on their development.
Objectives:
To investigate cross-sectional and 18-month prospective associations between leisure screen media use and leisure accelerometry-based non-sedentary time, body positions and physical activity types in preschoolers.
Methods and setting:
A population-based sample (n = 442) of Danish preschoolers 3-6 years from 30 public preschools having parent reported screen time use and also wore two three-axis accelerometers for six days at baseline (2016) and follow-up (2018). The average amount of time spent in non-sedentary activities, i.e. standing, standing that includes minor movements, walking, running, and cycling, were calculated at the two time points. Multivariable adjusted linear mixed-effect relationships were computed.
Results:
Cross sectional analyses showed that daily screen media use (hours) was negatively associated with daily mean non-sedentary time (beta = -3.1 min/day; 95% confidence interval, -6.1 to -0.1, p = .042), also evident during weekends. Screen media use was also associated with sitting (positively) and standing (negatively) during both weekdays and weekend days. Moreover, screen media use was positively associated with time spent standing that includes minor movements on weekdays. No associations were found in the prospective analyses (n = 142).
Conclusion:
Leisure screen media use was negatively associated with leisure non-sedentary time on both weekdays and weekend days. In addition, screen media use was consistently related to less standing and more sitting. No associations were found in the prospective analyses.
Keywords:
Accelerometry; Physical activity; Preschool; Screen time; Sedentary behavior.
Læs den videnskabelige artikel