Occurrence and duration of various operational definitions of sedentary bouts and cross-sectional associations with cardiometabolic health indicators: the ENERGY-project

Altenburg, Teatske M.; Niet, M. de; Verloigne, Maite; Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse de; Androutsos, Odysseas; Manios, Yannis; Kovacs, Eva; Bringolf-Isler, Bettina; Brug, Johannes and Chinapaw, Mai J. M. (2015): Occurrence and duration of various operational definitions of sedentary bouts and cross-sectional associations with cardiometabolic health indicators: the ENERGY-project. In: Preventive medicine, Vol. 71: pp. 101-106

Abstract

OBJECTIVE This study examined the occurrence and duration of sedentary bouts and explored the cross-sectional association with health indicators in children applying various operational definitions of sedentary bouts. METHODS Accelerometer data of 647 children (10–13 years old) were collected in five European countries. We analyzed sedentary time (< 100 cpm) accumulated in bouts of at least 5, 10, 20 or 30 min based on four operational definitions, allowing 0, 30 or 60 s ≥ 100 cpm within bouts. Health indicators included anthropometrics (i.e. waist circumference and body mass index (BMI)) and in a subsample from two European countries (n = 112) fasting capillary blood levels of glucose, C-peptide, high-density- and low-density cholesterol, and triglycerides. Data collection took place from March to July 2010. Associations were adjusted for age, gender, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, total wear time and country. RESULTS Occurrence of sedentary bouts varied largely between the various definitions. Children spent most of their sedentary time in bouts of ≥ 5 min while bouts of ≥ 20 min were rare. Linear regression analysis revealed few significant associations of sedentary time accumulated in bouts of ≥ 5–30 min with health indicators. Moreover, we found that more associations became significant when allowing no tolerance time within sedentary bouts. CONCLUSION Despite a few significant associations, we found no convincing evidence for an association between sedentary time accumulated in bouts and health indicators in 10-13 year old children.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine > Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology; Medicine > Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology > Epidemiology of Vertigo and Dizziness
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 1096-0260
• Language: English