Impact of age, sex, socioeconomic status, and physical activity on associated movements and motor speed in preschool children

Child eating behavior predicts body mass index after 1 year: results from the Swiss Preschooler's Health Study (SPLASHY)

Child obesity is a growing global issue. Preventing early development of overweight and obesity requires identifying reliable risk factors for high body mass index (BMI) in children. Child eating behavior might be an important and malleable risk factor that can be reliably assessed with the parent-report Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). Using a hierarchical dataset (children nested within child care centers) from a representative cohort of Swiss preschool children, we tested whether eating behavior, assessed with a 7-factor solution of the CEBQ, and BMI at baseline predicted the outcome BMI after 1 year, controlling for socioeconomic status (n = 555; 47% female; mean age = 3.9 years, range: 2.2-6.6; mean BMI = 16 kg/m2, range: 11.2-23; mean age- and sex-corrected z-transformed BMI, zBMI = 0.4, range -4 to +4.7). The statistical model explained 65.2% of zBMI at follow-up. Baseline zBMI was a strong positive predictor, uniquely explaining 48.8% of outcome variance. A linear combination of all CEBQ scales, taken together, explained 10.7% of outcome variance. Due to their intercorrelations, uniquely explained variance by any individual scale was of negligible clinical relevance. Only food responsiveness was a significant predictor, when accounting for all other predictors and covariates in the model, and uniquely explained only 0.4% of outcome variance. Altogether, our results confirm, extend, and refine previous research on eating behavior and zBMI in preschool children, by adjusting for covariates, accounting for intercorrelations between predictors, partitioning explained outcome variance, and providing standardized beta estimates. Our findings show the importance of carefully examining the contribution of predictors in multiple regression models for clinically relevant outcomes.

Prevalence of Physical Activity, Screen Time, and Sleep, and Associations with Adiposity and Motor Development among Preschool-Age Children in Vietnam: The SUNRISE Vietnam Pilot Study

OBJECTIVES

Global childhood obesity is of great concern. In 2019, the World Health Organization released global guidelines on movement behaviors for the children under 5 y of age to combat this epidemic. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of Vietnamese preschoolers meeting the guidelines, and examined whether guideline compliance is associated with adiposity and motor development.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 103 healthy preschoolers who were conveniently sampled from preschools in urban and rural areas around Ho Chi Minh city. Time spent in different intensities of physical activity and sedentary behavior was measured using Actigraph GT3X + accelerometers over three consecutive days. Sleep and screen time were obtained via parent questionnaires. Children were classified as meeting or not meeting the global guidelines. Height, weight, and motor skills were measured by the research staff. Regression models were applied to quantify the association between guideline compliance and adiposity and motor development, adjusting for age and sex.

RESULTS

While 17.5% of children met all three guidelines, 5.8% met no guidelines. The prevalences of children who met guidelines for physical activity time, sleep duration, and screen time were 50.4%, 81.4%, and 44.7%, respectively. There was no association between guideline compliance and adiposity and motor development.

CONCLUSION

This study found a low proportion of children who met the global guidelines, whereas a high proportion of those with overweight and obesity was reported. Health programs should promote more physical activities of various intensities in young children.

Quantifying age-related differences in selective voluntary motor control in children and adolescents with three assessments

BACKGROUND

Neurophysiological development of selective voluntary motor control (SVMC) is assumed but has not been quantified objectively. We assessed SVMC with (i) clinical assessments, (ii) a combination of these assessments with surface electromyography (sEMG) and, (iii) a playful computer game. The aim of this study was to describe and compare age-related differences in SVMC, quantified with these tools, in neurologically intact children, adolescents, and adults.

METHODS

We measured upper and lower extremity SVMC with three assessments in 31 children and adolescents. A sample of 33 and 31 adults provided reference values for the upper and lower extremity assessments, respectively. The Selective Control of the Upper Extremity Scale (SCUES) or the Selective Control Assessment of the Lower Extremity (SCALE) were combined with simultaneous sEMG recordings. We quantified SVMC by a similarity index that compared an individual's muscle activation pattern with those of an adult reference group. The SVMC Assessgame required isolated joint movements to steer an avatar and quantified the accuracy of the selective movement and the extent of involuntary movements occurring in not involved joints.

RESULTS

Results from the conventional clinical assessments correlated low to moderately with age (SCUES: r = 0.55, p = 0.013; SCALE: r = 0.44, p = 0.001), while the correlation between the sEMG based similarity index and age was negligible (r ≤ 0.25). The outcomes of the Assessgame correlated highly with age (r ≥ 0.80, p ≤ 0.001). Older children and adolescents performed movements more accurately and with fewer involuntary movements compared to younger participants.

CONCLUSIONS

The tools assess and quantify SVMC differently, affecting the way they capture age-related differences in SVMC. Some assessments require reference values from neurologically intact children and adolescents to correctly classify impairments of SVMC in patients with neuromotor disorders.

In preschool children, physical activity during school time can significantly increase by intensifying locomotor activities during physical education classes

OBJECTIVES

After categorizing preschool children into "active and low active" according to their moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in PE classes (PE), we compared these two groups within each sex and by sex in: (a) % MVPA and MVPA minutes accrued from each fundamental motor skill (FMS) during PE and (b) % MVPA during school time.

RESULTS

532 children (mean age 5.2 years, 50% girls) were selected from a nationwide program which provides 3 weekly PE. Children wore accelerometers during one school day which included PE. We recorded the type and duration of each activity indicated by the teacher, classifying each one into the corresponding FMS, extracting its MVPA minutes from the accelerometer software. Children were categorized into active and low active. Comparisons used T-tests. In PE, active children accumulate 40 and 36 percentage points (pp) more MVPA minutes (boys and girls respectively), while during school time, 4 pp more in each sex. Girls are significantly less active. Just considering locomotion, active boys and girls accumulate 11 more MVPA minutes during PE. Active boys surpass the MVPA guideline for PE, while active girls almost reach it. Low active children (especially girls) should intensify locomotor activities during PE.

Contralateral Associated Movements Correlate with Poorer Inhibitory Control, Attention and Visual Perception in Preschool Children

Contralateral associated movements (CAMs) frequently occur in complex motor tasks. We investigated whether and to what extent CAMs are associated with inhibitory control among preschool children in the Swiss Preschoolers' Health Study. Participants were 476 healthy, typically developing children (mean age = 3.88 years; 251 boys) evaluated on two consecutive afternoons. The children performed the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment, the statue subtest of the Neuropsychological Assessment for Children (NEPSY), and cognitive tests of the Intelligence and Development Scales-Preschool (IDS-P). CAMs were associated with poor inhibitory control on the statue test and poor selective attention and visual perception on the IDS-P. We attributed these findings to preschoolers' general immaturity of the central nervous system.