Physical Activity, Screen Time and Sleep Duration: Combined Associations with Psychosocial Health among Canadian Children and Youth

HALO Scientists, Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput and Dr. Gary Goldfield, are co-authors on a paper “Physical activity, screen time and sleep duration: Combined associations with psychosocial health among Canadian children and youth” that was just published in Health Reports. Citation details and summary of the paper are below.

Bang F, Roberts KC, Chaput JP, et al. Physical activity, screen time and sleep duration: Combined associations with psychosocial health among Canadian children and youth. Health Reports 2020; 31(5): 9‑16.

Congratulations, JP, Gary and team!

Abstract

Background: Canada recently adopted the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Children and Youth (24-Hour Guidelines) for young people aged 5 to 17 years—an international first, providing integrated recommendations for physical activity, sedentary time and sleep. Since the release of the guidelines, very few studies have examined the associations of adherence to the 24-Hour Guidelines with health outcomes—and none focus on psychosocial health. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the associations of meeting the 24-Hour Guidelines and their behaviour-specific recommendations with psychosocial health among Canadian children and youth.

Methods: This cross‑sectional study included 4,250 children and youth aged 5 to 17 years with valid accelerometer data. The study data were collected from 2009 to 2015 with the Canadian Health Measures Survey and pooled. Moderate‑to‑vigorous physical activity was measured using accelerometers; screen time, sleep duration and measures of psychosocial health were self‑ or proxy‑reported. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the associations of meeting individual or different combined recommendations from the 24‑Hour Guidelines with psychosocial health.

Results: There was low overall adherence to all three 24‑Hour Guidelines recommendations, especially among youth (children: 13.9%, youth: 4.8%). Meeting two or more of the recommendations was associated with higher odds of positive psychosocial health among youth (odds ratio [OR] = 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17–8.19). Sleep duration and screen time were strongly associated with social behaviour and psychosocial health among Canadian youth.

Interpretation: Adherence to the 24‑Hour Guidelines was significantly associated with better psychosocial health among Canadian youth.

Click here to read the paper in full for free.