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Children seem to mimic their parents' physical activity level

Parents who reduced their sedentary behavior and increased their physical activity level had children who did the same, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers said the findings may present opportunities for clinicians to discuss with their patients ways to reverse the trend of obesity, which, according to the CDC, occurs in one in six children and adolescents, and more than one-third of adults in the United States.

“Understanding how parents influence child [physical activity (PA)] is necessary for developing effective early childhood interventions,” Shari L. Barkin, MD, MSHS, department of pediatrics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues wrote. “The present study is the first to examine the association using accelerometry in a large sample of underserved, mostly Latino parent-preschool child pairs.”

According to the researchers, less than half of preschool-aged children get the recommended 3 or more hours of total physical activity a day with at least 1 hour considered moderate and vigorous (MVPA). Compliance among blacks and Latino-Americans is even lower. More than 10% of the study’s 1,003 parent-child pairs were black, approximately 75% were Latin American and all came from low-income backgrounds.

“Determinants of physical activity in underserved Latino and black preschool-aged children have not been well studied, but are important to understand because of their elevated obesity risk,” researchers wrote.

More than a third of the children, and 76% of the parents in the study, were considered obese or overweight; 60% of the children were normal weight. The mean age of the children was 3.9 years. All participants wore accelerometers for more than 12 hours a day.

The researchers reported that covariate-adjusted models showed a positive, never-changing relationship between parent and child minutes of sedentary behavior and (95% CI, 0.06-0.15) and light physical activity (95% CI, 0.03-0.09). Although child and parent moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were positively associated with up to 40 minutes a day of parent moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, when the parents’ activity went longer than 40 minutes, the child did not take part (P = .002). Gender seemed to play little role in whether the children reached the recommended 1 hour of daily moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity.

Researchers wrote about one way to ensure both parents and children fulfill the recommended activity guidelines.

“Helping families identify [moderate-to-vigorous-physical activities] that are appealing to parents and developmentally appropriate for children may help to promote recommended levels of PA to all family members,” Barkin and colleagues wrote.

Previous recent research has suggested parents’ weight loss may influence that of their children and that those youth who exercise in middle childhood are less likely to be depressed.  – by Janel Miller

Further reading:

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/index.html

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.