̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Esther van Sluijs

School uniform policies linked to students getting less exercise, study finds

tdk25 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:01:19 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge study used data about the physical activity participation of more than a million five-to-17-year-olds internationally. It found that in countries where a majority of schools require students to wear uniforms, fewer young people tend to meet the average of 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Regardless of uniform policies, across most countries fewer girls than boys reach those recommended exercise levels. Among primary school students, however, the difference in activity between girls and boys was found to be wider in countries where most schools mandated uniforms. ̽��ֱ��same result was not found in secondary school-aged students.

̽��ֱ��authors suggest that this could be explained by the fact that younger children get more incidental exercise throughout the school day than older students; for example, through running, climbing and various other forms of active play at break and lunchtimes. There is already evidence that girls feel less comfortable in participating in active play if they are wearing certain types of clothing, such as skirts or dresses.

Importantly, the results do not definitively prove that school uniforms limit children’s physical activity and the researchers stress that “causation cannot be inferred”. Previous, smaller studies however provide support for these findings, indicating that uniforms could pose a barrier. For the first time, the research examines large-scale statistical evidence to assess that claim.

̽��ֱ��study was led by Dr Mairead Ryan, a researcher at the Faculty of Education and Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

“Schools often prefer to use uniforms for various reasons,” Dr Ryan said. “We are not trying to suggest a blanket ban on them, but to present new evidence to support decision-making. School communities could consider design, and whether specific characteristics of a uniform might either encourage or restrict any opportunities for physical activity across the day.”

̽��ֱ��WHO recommends that young people get an average of 60 minutes of at least moderate-intensity physical activity per day during the week. ̽��ֱ��study confirms previous observations that most children and adolescents are not meeting this recommendation, especially girls. ̽��ֱ��difference in the percentage of boys and girls meeting physical activity guidelines across all countries was, on average, 7.6 percentage points.

Existing evidence suggests that uniforms could be a factor. Previous concerns have, for example, been raised about girls’ PE uniforms and school sports kits. A 2021 study in England found that the design of girls’ PE uniforms deterred students from participating in certain activities, while the hockey player Tess Howard proposed redesigning gendered sports uniforms for similar reasons, after analysing interview and survey data.

Children often get their exercise away from PE and sports lessons, however.

“Activities like walking or cycling to school, breaktime games, and after-school outdoor play can all help young people incorporate physical activity into their daily routines,” Ryan said. “That’s why we are interested in the extent to which various elements of young people’s environments, including what they wear, encourage such behaviours.”

̽��ֱ��study analysed existing data on the physical activity levels of nearly 1.1 million young people aged five to 17 in 135 countries and combined this with newly collected data on how common the use of school uniforms is in these countries.

In over 75% of the countries surveyed, a majority of schools required their students to wear uniforms. ̽��ֱ��study found that in these countries, physical activity participation was lower. ̽��ֱ��median proportion of all students meeting the WHO recommendations in countries where uniform-wearing was the norm was 16%; this rose to 19.5% in countries where uniforms were less common.

There was a consistent gender gap between boys’ and girls’ physical activity levels, with boys 1.5 times more likely to meet WHO recommendations across all ages. However, the gap widened from 5.5 percentage points at primary school level in non-uniform countries to a 9.8 percentage point difference in countries where uniforms were required in most schools.

̽��ֱ��finding appears to match evidence from other studies suggesting that girls are more self-conscious about engaging in physical activity when wearing uniforms in which they do not feel comfortable.

“Girls might feel less confident about doing things like cartwheels and tumbles in the playground, or riding a bike on a windy day, if they are wearing a skirt or dress,” said senior author Dr Esther van Sluijs, MRC Investigator. “Social norms and expectations tend to influence what they feel they can do in these clothes. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting physical health, that’s a problem.”

̽��ֱ��authors of the study argue that there is now enough evidence to warrant further investigation into whether there is a causal relationship between school uniforms and lower activity levels. They also highlight the importance of regular physical activity for all young people, regardless of their gender.

“Regular physical activity helps support multiple physical, mental, and well-being needs, as well as academic outcomes,” Dr Ryan said. “We now need more information to build on these findings, considering factors like how long students wear their uniforms for after school, whether this varies depending on their background, and how broader gendered clothing norms may impact their activity.”

̽��ֱ��findings are reported in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.

Reference
Ryan, M et al. Are school uniforms associated with gender inequalities in physical activity? A pooled analysis of population-level data from 135 countries/regions. Journal of Sport and Health Science; 15 Feb 2024; DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2024.02.003

School uniform policies could be restricting young people from being active, particularly primary school-aged girls, new research suggests.

Social norms and expectations tend to influence what they feel they can do in these clothes. Unfortunately, when it comes to promoting physical health, that’s a problem

Esther van Sluijs

Thirdman

School children watching a sports game from indoors

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Just over half of six-year-olds in Britain meet physical activity guidelines

cjb250 — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 16:00:54 +0000

Physical activity is beneficial for our physical and mental health, but activity levels tend to decrease across childhood and adolescence. Current UK physical activity guidelines recommend that children and young people from ages 5 to 18 years do an average of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (such as playing in the park or physical education) per day across the week. For all children, it is also recommended that they keep to a minimum extended periods of sedentary behaviour (such as sitting watching TV).

To investigate how much activity children do in their early primary school years, researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre at the ̽��ֱ�� of Southampton provided 712 six-year-olds with Actiheart accelerometers, which measured their heart rate and movement. ̽��ֱ��children, who had been recruited as part of the ongoing Southampton Women’s Survey, wore these continually for an average of six days.

̽��ֱ��results of the study are published today in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health.

At age six, children were sedentary for a daily average of more than five hours (316 minutes) and engaged in over 7.5 hours (457 minutes) of low-level physical activity and just over an hour (65 minutes) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Just over half of the children (53%) met the current UK recommended guidelines, with boys being more likely to reach the target than girls (63% of boys vs 42% of girls).

Dr Esther van Sluijs from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge said: “Using accelerometers, we were able to get a much better idea of how active children were and we found that just over a half of six-year-olds were getting the recommended amount of physical activity. But this means that almost half of British children in this age group are not regularly active, which we know is important for their wellbeing and their performance at school.”

When the researchers analysed activity levels by time of day, they found that girls engaged in less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the school day at age six. Possible explanations are that girls wear skirts, which may make physical activity more challenging, or that they choose less active options during break times.

̽��ֱ��researchers were able to look at longitudinal data from some children – that is, data recorded over a period of time rather than just a snapshot – and found that compared to at age four, at age six children became more sedentary (on average, around 30 minutes per day more compared to when they were four), but also engaged in an additional seven minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Dr Kathryn Hesketh from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge added: “This is something of a double-edged sword: children appear to do more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity when they start formal schooling, which is really positive, but they also spend more time sedentary. This may in part be because of the structure of the school day, so we may want to look at ways to reduce sedentary time when children are younger, to prevent that behaviour becoming habitual.”

Professor Keith Godfrey from the ̽��ֱ�� of Southampton commented: “These analyses indicate that new initiatives to promote physical activity must consider the lower activity levels in girls and at weekends. ̽��ֱ��time when children transition into formal schooling is an important opportunity to ensure a much higher proportion achieve recommended levels of activity.”

While based on detailed data collected up to 2012, evidence from national questionnaire based surveys is that children's patterns of activity levels changed little in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, with widely recognised even lower rates of meeting the Chief Medical Officer guidelines during the pandemic.

̽��ֱ��work was largely supported by Wellcome and the Medical Research Council.

Reference
Hesketh, KR et al. Activity behaviours in British 6-year-olds: cross-sectional associations and longitudinal change during the school transition. Journal of Physical Activity & Health; 11 Aug 2022; DOI: 10.1123/jpah.2021-0718

All averages quoted are mean.

Fifty-three percent of six-year-olds met the recommended daily guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in a study carried out pre-pandemic by researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Southampton.

This is something of a double-edged sword: children appear to do more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity when they start formal schooling, which is really positive, but they also spend more time sedentary

Kathryn Hesketh

JW LTD (Getty Images)

Group of children playing tug of war

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Children from disadvantaged backgrounds and certain ethnic minorities do less vigorous physical activity

cjb250 — Tue, 28 May 2019 08:55:20 +0000

̽��ֱ��patterns mirror inequalities seen in levels of childhood obesity, suggesting a need for a greater focus on the promotion of vigorous physical activity, particularly for those children from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

Over the past four decades, the global prevalence of childhood obesity has increased tenfold. Obesity in childhood is associated with illness and early death in adulthood, so tackling childhood obesity is increasingly a public health priority for governments.

There are also widening inequalities in obesity prevalence. By age 11, UK children from disadvantaged families are three times as likely to be obese than more advantaged children. There are also stark ethnic and racial differences in levels of childhood obesity, with higher rates of obesity within certain ethnic minorities including children from Black African, Black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds.

Evidence suggests that more vigorous intensity activity – such as running or swimming – is more strongly linked with reduced waist circumference and body fat than moderate intensity activity. International guidelines say that children should engage in moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity for at least 60 minutes per day.

“When we look at overall physical activity we don’t see clear differences between children from different backgrounds despite clear inequalities in obesity,” says Rebecca Love, a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) in the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “To investigate this further, we looked at whether overall physical activity was hiding inequalities in the intensity with which that activity is performed that might explain these patterns.”

̽��ֱ��researchers studied data from almost 5,200 children aged 7 years who were part of the Millennium Cohort Study, a longitudinal study of children born in the UK between September 2000 and January 2002. ̽��ֱ��children were given accelerometers and their activity measured for a minimum of ten hours for three days. ̽��ֱ��results are published today in the journal BMJ Open.

̽��ֱ��team found that the higher the level of education attained by the mother, the more minutes of vigorous intensity activity her child was likely to have, accounting for time spent in moderate physical activity. Children with mothers with high levels of education accumulated three minutes more vigorous activity per day then those with low levels of education. Similarly, the team found significantly more time spent in vigorous intensity activity incrementally with increasing household income.

Intensity differences were also apparent by ethnicity. White British children perform on average more than three minutes more daily vigorous physical activity in comparison to children from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Children from ‘other ethnic groups’ also accumulated 2.2 minutes fewer daily vigorous intensity activity overall.

It is suggested these differences are relevant on a population level and changes to reduce differences in vigorous physical activity could have population implications for inequalities in adiposity in UK children. ̽��ֱ��differences were consistent in both boys and girls.

“There are clear differences in the amount of vigorous physical activity a child does depending on their socioeconomic and ethnic background,” explains senior author Dr Esther van Sluijs. “Although individually, these differences are small, at a population level they are likely to make a difference. Changes to reduce existing gaps in vigorous intensity activity could help reduce existing inequalities in levels of obesity in children.”

̽��ֱ��team say that there are many factors that might explain the differences, including access to or the cost of participating in sports activities, and a parent working longer, inconsistent work hours within a low-income job. There may also be differences in home and family support for physical activity between ethnic groups.

“Children from different backgrounds can face a number of barriers preventing them from participating in sports or other types of vigorous physical activity,” adds Dr Jean Adams. “We need to find more ways to provide opportunities for all children to get involved in vigorous activity.”

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Department of Health, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and Wellcome. Additional support was provided by Gates Cambridge.

Reference
Love, R et al. Socio-economic and ethnic differences in children’s vigorous intensity physical activity: a cross-sectional analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study. BMJ Open; 28 May 2019

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds and certain ethnic minority backgrounds, including from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, have lower levels of vigorous physical activity, according to researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Children from different backgrounds can face a number of barriers preventing them from participating in sports or other types of vigorous physical activity

Jean Adams

Margaret Weir

Children playing

Researcher profile: Rebecca Love

Rebecca Love, a PhD student at the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) researches the factors that drive obesity, particularly among children from different economic and social backgrounds.

It is perhaps ironic, then, that she has spent most of her PhD “sitting at a computer in the CEDAR offices at Addenbrooke’s [Hospital] – not quite the picturesque Cambridge working environment I had imagined”!

Rebecca grew up in Canada. As part of her undergraduate degree at Queen’s ̽��ֱ�� in Kingston, Ontario, she spent a year in Trinidad and Tobago working alongside the Caribbean Sport and Development Agency on a project to implement educational programming and change policy structures to protect the rights of children. It was through these experiences that she gained an interest in the evaluation of interventions and in understanding how to identify what works within a given context.

Rebecca is currently finishing her PhD, supported by Gates Cambridge. Her work has involved examining population cohort studies from a range of countries to understand whether differences in patterns of physical activity behaviour between children help to explain the rising and widening obesity disparities seen within many countries. She is now investigating whether school-based interventions are effective at improving physical activity behaviour – and if this effect is the same in children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds and between girls and boys.

“I’m fascinated by the complexity of influences driving the worsening epidemic of obesity globally,” explains Rebecca. “If we’re going to find effective solutions, we’ll need an interdisciplinary approach involving collaboration from a wide range of stakeholders and institutions.”

Fortunately, Rebecca’s research does sometimes get her out ‘into the field’. In 2017, she visited the ̽��ֱ�� of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa to investigate physical activity and obesity within the Birth to Twenty Cohort. This is Africa’s largest and longest running cohort of adolescent health and development, which has followed a cohort of children born in 1990 in Soweto, South Africa.

“Two months of warmth in exchange for the UK winter and cold bike rides to Addenbrooke’s came at a welcome time in my PhD! There, I had the opportunity to visit childcare centres and schools in townships surrounding Johannesburg and Cape Town, across which rates of childhood overweight and obesity are rising. Listening and learning from the experiences and perspectives of individuals working across these settings was thought-provoking.”

Rebecca describes CEDAR as “an extremely supportive and welcoming community. ̽��ֱ��opportunity to constantly be exposed to innovative research and conversations has been really influential and a central part of my learning experience”.

She is currently a PhD student at King’s College. This, together with her Gates Cambridge scholarship, has allowed her to meet students and researchers from a wide range different backgrounds and disciplines, developing friendships and learning from perspective of peers from all corners of the world.

“Constant events, lectures and opportunities make Cambridge an exciting and stimulating place to be a graduate student. It can be quite distracting at times – but to me that is one of the best parts about being here!”

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Children aren’t active enough in winter, say Cambridge researchers

cjb250 — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 08:46:44 +0000

Public health guidelines state that children should accumulate at least an hour per day of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity, which might include brisk walking or running, active participation in sports or exercising. At the same time, children should minimise the amount of time they spend sitting for extended periods.

To examine the seasonal variation in children’s behaviour, researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit and Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which measured levels of physical activity in more than 700 seven year old children across a calendar year using accelerometers. Using the data, they also modelled the relationship between levels of activity and variables such as gender, weight and family income. ̽��ֱ��results of their study are published in the journal Medicine and Science in Exercise and Sport.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that physical activity was lower in autumn and winter compared to spring; average activity levels across the group peaked in April at 65.3 min/day and reached their lowest levels in February at 47.8 min/day. Physical activity was at its lowest at weekends during winter. Children were at their most active during early summer, particularly at weekends.

̽��ֱ��models suggested that boys’ activity levels changed more than girls’ throughout the year, but remained higher than girls’ at all times. Although on average, boys achieved the recommended minimum activity even at winter, girls only tended to reach recommended levels during the summer.

“Physical activity is important for children’s health and development, but many do not get enough exercise,” says the study’s first author Dr Andrew Atkin, from the MRC Epidemiology Unit and CEDAR. “During spring and summer, when the weather is better and the days are longer, they tend to be playing out and more active, but during the darker, colder months, they are much less active.”

̽��ֱ��team argues that the findings provide further support for initiatives aimed at encouraging physical activity amongst children during winter, particularly at the weekend. To some extent, the structure of the school day, including the need to travel to and from school, protects against inactivity during weekdays in term time.

“Children need to be given more opportunities to be active, particularly during the winter months and when the weather is bad,” adds Dr Esther van Sluijs, the study’s senior author also from CEDAR. “This might include better access to indoor spaces where children can be active or through schools changing their policies related to the use of indoor and outdoor spaces during bad weather.”

̽��ֱ��study was largely supported by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, whose funding comes from the British Heart Foundation, Department of Health, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust. ̽��ֱ��Millennium Cohort Study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Reference
Atkin, AJ et al. Seasonal Variation in Children’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Time. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 449–456, 2016. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000786

Children should be given more support to enable them to be more active during the winter, particularly at weekends, say researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Their call comes in response to their findings that children are less active and spend more time sitting in autumn and winter compared to other times of the year.

Physical activity is important for children’s health and development, but many do not get enough exercise

Andrew Atkins

David Robert Bliwas

chasing shadows... (cropped)

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Use of TV, internet and computer games associated with poorer GCSE grades

cjb250 — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 07:00:21 +0000

In a study published today in the open access International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, researchers also found that pupils doing an extra hour of daily homework and reading performed significantly better than their peers. However, the level of physical activity had no effect on academic performance.

̽��ֱ��link between physical activity and health is well established, but its link with academic achievement is not yet well understood. Similarly, although greater levels of sedentary behaviour – for example, watching TV or reading – have been linked to poorer physical health, the connection to academic achievement is also unclear.

To look at the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behaviours and academic achievement, a team of researchers led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge studied 845 pupils from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, measuring levels of activity and sedentary behaviour at age 14.5 years and then comparing this to their performance in their GCSEs the following year. This data was from the ROOTS study, a large longitudinal study assessing health and wellbeing during adolescence led by Professor Ian Goodyer at the Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��researchers measured objective levels of activity and time spent sitting, through a combination of heart rate and movement sensing. Additionally the researchers used self-reported measures to assess screen time (the time spent watching TV, using the internet and playing computer games) and time spent doing homework, and reading for pleasure.

̽��ֱ��team found that screen time was associated with total GCSE points achieved. Each additional hour per day of time spent in front of the TV or online at age 14.5 years was associated with 9.3 fewer GCSE points at age 16 years – the equivalent to two grades in one subject (for example from a B to a D) or one grade in each of two subjects, for example. Two extra hours was associated with 18 fewer points at GCSE.

Screen time and time spent reading or doing homework were independently associated with academic performance, suggesting that even if participants do a lot of reading and homework, watching TV or online activity still damages their academic performance.

̽��ֱ��researchers found no significant association between moderate to vigorous physical activity and academic performance, though this contradicts a recent study which found a beneficial effect in some academic subjects. However, both studies conclude that engaging in physical activity does not damage a pupil’s academic performance. Given the wider health and social benefits of overall physical activity, the researchers argue that it remains a public health priority both in and out of school.

As well as looking at total screen time, the researchers analysed time spent in different screen activities. Although watching TV, playing computer games or being online were all associated with poorer grades, TV viewing was found to be the most detrimental.

As this was a prospective study – in other words, the researchers followed the pupils over time to determine how different behaviours affected their academic achievement – the researchers believe they can, with some caution, infer that increased screen time led to poorer academic performance.

“Spending more time in front of a screen appears to be linked to a poorer performance at GCSE,” says first author Dr Kirsten Corder from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) in the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. “We only measured this behaviour in Year 10, but this is likely to be a reliable snapshot of participants’ usual behaviour, so we can reasonably suggest that screen time may be damaging to a teenager’s grades. Further research is needed to confirm this effect conclusively, but parents who are concerned about their child’s GCSE grade might consider limiting his or her screen time.”

Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that teenagers who spent their sedentary time doing homework or reading scored better at GCSE: pupils doing an extra hour of daily homework and reading achieved on average 23.1 more GCSE points than their peers. However, pupils doing over four hours of reading or homework a day performed less well than their peers – the number of pupils in this category was relatively low (only 52 participants) and may include participants who are struggling at school, and therefore do a lot of homework but unfortunately perform badly in exams.

Dr Esther van Sluijs, also from CEDAR, adds: “We believe that programmes aimed at reducing screen time could have important benefits for teenagers’ exam grades, as well as their health. It is also encouraging that our results show that greater physical activity does not negatively affect exam results. As physical activity has many other benefits, efforts to promote physical activity throughout the day should still be a public health priority.”

̽��ֱ��research was mainly supported by the MRC and the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

Reference
Corder, K et al. Revising on the run or studying on the sofa: Prospective associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and exam results in British adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity; 4 Sept 2015.

Each extra hour per day spent watching TV, using the internet or playing computer games during Year 10 is associated with poorer grades at GCSE at age 16, according to research from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Parents who are concerned about their child’s GCSE grade might consider limiting his or her screen time

Kirsten Corder

Al Ibrahim

365.060 - Watching TV

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When mothers are active so are their children – but many mothers are not

amb206 — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 09:21:01 +0000

Parents are strong influences in the lives of young children, with patterns of behaviour established in the early years laying the foundation for future choices. A new study suggests that, when it comes to levels of physical activity, it is mothers who set (or don’t set) the pace.

An analysis of the physical activity levels of more than 500 mothers and pre-schoolers, assessed using activity monitors to produce accurate data, found that the amount of activity that a mother and her child did each day was closely related. Overall, maternal activity levels were strikingly low: only 53% of mothers engaged in 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at least once a week. ̽��ֱ��UK Government recommends achieving 150 minutes of at least ‘moderate intensity physical activity’ (such as brisk walking) over the week as one of the ways of achieving its physical activity guidelines.

̽��ֱ��results of the study are published today (24 March 2014) in the journal Pediatrics. ̽��ֱ��paper ‘Activity Levels in Mothers and Their Preschool Children’ suggests that, given the link between mothers and young children, policies to improve children’s health should be directed to whole families and seek to engage mothers in particular.

̽��ֱ��research was overseen by Dr Esther van Sluijs at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and led by Kathryn Hesketh (formerly of Cambridge and now UCL), in collaboration with researchers at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, ̽��ֱ�� of Southampton.

̽��ֱ��study is the first to show a direct association in a large sample of mothers and children, both fitted with activity monitors at the same time. It shows that young children are not ‘just naturally active’ and that parents have an important role to play in the development of healthy activity habits early on in life. ̽��ֱ��research also provides important evidence for policy makers to inform programmes that promote physical activity in families with young children. Its findings suggest that all family members can benefit from such efforts.

It is well established that physical activity is closely linked to health and disease prevention. Research shows that active mothers appear to have active school-aged children, who are in turn more likely than their less active peers to have good health outcomes. However, there has been little large-scale research into the association between the activity of mothers and that of preschool-aged children or about the demographic and temporal factors that influence activity levels in mothers of young children.

̽��ֱ��research published in the Pediatrics paper drew on data obtained from 554 women and their four-year-old children who are participants in the Southampton Women’s Survey, devised and run by the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit. A major longitudinal study initiated in the late 1990s, the project is following women who were first interviewed in their 20s and 30s, many of whom subsequently gave birth. From confirmation of pregnancy, the programme assesses the health and development of the children born to women in the survey.

Of the 554 mothers whose data was analysed in the Cambridge-led study, many were working and many of the children attended day-care facilities – factors that influenced activity levels of both mothers and children, as well as the association between the two. Other potential influences on maternal activity examined in the study included maternal education, whether the child had siblings, and whether his or her father was present at home.

While previous studies have used a self-report approach to measure activity, in the Southampton Women’s Survey both mothers and youngsters were fitted with Actiheart monitors (combined accelerometer and heart rate monitor) to record with a high degree of accuracy their physical activity levels for up to a week with a high degree of accuracy. “We used an activity monitor that was attached to participants and worn continuously, even during sleep and water-based activity,” said van Sluijs.

“This approach allowed us to capture accurately both mothers’ and children’s physical activity levels for the whole of the measurement period, matching hour for hour maternal-child activity levels. This comparison provided us with detailed information about how the association between mothers and children’s activity changed throughout the day, and how factors such as childcare attendance and maternal education influenced this relationship.”

̽��ֱ��activity levels of parent and child were, for the first time, recorded over whole daytime periods for up to seven days. ̽��ֱ��resulting data allowed the researchers to plot physical activity throughout the day and over the course of an entire week to see how activities varied across the day and how weekday activity levels compared with weekend activity levels.

̽��ֱ��data from mother and child were matched up to see if and how the activity patterns of adults and children correlated. “We saw a direct, positive association between physical activity in children and their mothers – the more activity a mother did, the more active her child. Although it is not possible to tell from this study whether active children were making their mothers run around after them, it is likely that activity in one of the pair influences activity in the other,” said Hesketh.

“For every minute of moderate-to-vigorous activity a mother engaged in, her child was more likely to engage in 10% more of the same level of activity. If a mother was one hour less sedentary per day, her child may have spent 10 minutes less sedentary per day. Such small minute-by-minute differences may therefore represent a non-trivial amount of activity over the course of a week, month and year.”

̽��ֱ��direct positive association between mothers and their four-year-old children was apparent for overall daily activity levels and activity segmented over the day (morning, afternoon and evening). This finding suggests that mothers and their children are active concurrently. However, the association differed by child’s weight status, time spent at preschool, duration of mother’s schooling and by time of day and week.

“Our study shows that the relationship between mother and child activity is moderated by demographic and time factors – for example, for moderate-to-vigorous activity, the relationship was stronger for mothers who left school aged 16 compared to those who left aged 18 or more. ̽��ֱ��association also differed by time of week, with light activity, such as walking, most strongly associated at weekends than on weekdays. ̽��ֱ��opposite was observed for moderate-to-vigorous activity which was more strongly associated on weekdays,” said van Sluijs.

̽��ֱ��research adds a further dimension to what is already known about levels of physical activity in children and adults. Despite strong evidence of the benefits of exercise, activity levels decrease through childhood and into adulthood. This decline extends into the childbearing years. New parents tend to be less active than peers without children and more likely to fail to meet recommended guidelines.

Once women become mothers their activity levels frequently fail to return to pre-parenthood levels and their relative lack of activity may influence that of their small children. “There are many competing priorities for new parents and making time to be active may not always be top of the list. However, small increases in maternal activity levels may lead to benefits for mothers and children. And if activity in mothers and children can be encouraged or incorporated into daily activities, so that more time is spent moving, activity levels are likely to increase in both. In return, this is likely to have long-term health benefits for both,” said Hesketh.

A study of physical activity patterns of women and their four-year-olds reveals a strong association between the two. It also shows that only 53% of mothers engaged in 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity at least once a week. Taken together, these results provide valuable pointers for policy makers.

Our study shows that the relationship between mother and child activity is moderated by demographic and time factors.

Esther van Sluijs

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Wellies

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