Systematic review of sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth

By Mark S. Tremblay, A. LeBlanc, M. Kho, T. Saunders, R. Larouche, R. Colley, G. Goldfield, S. Gorber. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2011

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Accumulating evidence suggests that, independent of physical activity levels, sedentary behaviours are associated with increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease, all-cause mortality, and a variety of physiological and psychological problems. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to determine the relationship between sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth aged 5-17 years. Online databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO), personal libraries and government documents were searched for relevant studies examining time spent engaging in sedentary behaviours and six specific health indicators (body composition, fitness, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, self-esteem, pro-social behaviour and academic achievement). 232 studies including 983,840 participants met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Television (TV) watching was the most common measure of sedentary behaviour and body composition was the most common outcome measure. Qualitative analysis of all studies revealed a dose-response relation between increased sedentary behaviour and unfavourable health outcomes. Watching TV for more than 2 hours per day was associated with unfavourable body composition, decreased fitness, lowered scores for self-esteem and pro-social behaviour and decreased academic achievement. Meta-analysis was completed for randomized controlled studies that aimed to reduce sedentary time and reported change in body mass index (BMI) as their primary outcome. In this regard, a meta-analysis revealed an overall significant effect of -0.81 (95% CI of -1.44 to -0.17, p = 0.01) indicating an overall decrease in mean BMI associated with the interventions. There is a large body of evidence from all study designs which suggests that decreasing any type of sedentary time is associated with lower health risk in youth aged 5-17 years. In particular, the evidence suggests that daily TV viewing in excess of 2 hours is associated with reduced physical and psychosocial health, and that lowering sedentary time leads to reductions in BMI.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Physiology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/27b420925a6925e3f02c6220898fafc309d99dac

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In General Health Professions

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Citations in the corpus

Sedentary Behavior and Health Outcomes: An Overview of Systematic Reviews (2014, background): “[19,24] In such studies, television viewing was associated with lower self-esteem and pro-social behaviors.[26] In addition, Pearson and Biddle [21] conducted a review in which they concluded that sedentary behavior, predominantly screen time, is associated with unhealthy eating habits (alcohol cons”
A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for adults: informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport (2013, methodology): “Study quality was objectively appraised using the Downs and Black checklist [20] This checklist has been used in other systematic reviews within the physical activity and health field [21,22].”
A systematic review of the psychological and social benefits of participation in sport for children and adolescents: informing development of a conceptual model of health through sport (2013, background): “other systematic reviews within the physical activity and health field [33,34].”
Sedentary behavior and health outcomes among older adults: a systematic review (2014, background): “children, adolescents, [13-15] and adults [11,16-19] have recently been published.”
Pediatric Obesity-Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. (2017, positive): “A meta-analysis showed a positive association between sedentary time and the risk for obesity, although the effects were small (172).”