Login / Signup

Socioeconomic disparities in physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep patterns among 6- to 9-year-old children from 24 countries in the WHO European region.

Sanja Musić MilanovićMarta BuoncristianoHelena KrižanGiulia RathmesJulianne WilliamsJolanda HyskaVesselka DulevaHana ZamrazilováTatjana HejgaardMaja Baeksgaard JørgensenBenoît SalanaveLela ShengeliaCecily C KelleherAngela SpinelliPaola NardoneShynar AbdrakhmanovaZhamilya UsupovaIveta PuduleAusra PetrauskieneVictoria Farrugia Sant'AngeloEnisa KujundžićAnna FijałkowskaAna Isabel RitoAlexandra CucuLacramioara Aurelia BrinduseValentina PeterkovaAndrea GualtieriMarta García-SolanoEnrique Gutiérrez-GonzálezKhadichamo BoymatovaMahmut S YardimMaya TanrygulyyevaMarina MelkumovaDaniel WeghuberEha NurkPäivi MäkiIngunn Holden BerghSergej M OstojicKenisha Russell JonssonIgor SpiroskiHarry RutterWolfgang AhrensIvo RakovacStephen WhitingJoão Breda
Published in: Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (2021)
Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep are important predictors of children's health. This paper aimed to investigate socioeconomic disparities in physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep across the WHO European region. This cross-sectional study used data on 124,700 children aged 6 to 9 years from 24 countries participating in the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative between 2015 and 2017. Socioeconomic status (SES) was measured through parental education, parental employment status, and family perceived wealth. Overall, results showed different patterns in socioeconomic disparities in children's movement behaviors across countries. In general, high SES children were more likely to use motorized transportation. Low SES children were less likely to participate in sports clubs and more likely to have more than 2 h/day of screen time. Children with low parental education had a 2.24 [95% CI 1.94-2.58] times higher risk of practising sports for less than 2 h/week. In the pooled analysis, SES was not significantly related to active play. The relationship between SES and sleep varied by the SES indicator used. Importantly, results showed that low SES is not always associated with a higher prevalence of "less healthy" behaviors. There is a great diversity in SES patterns across countries which supports the need for country-specific, targeted public health interventions.
Keyphrases