THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURE ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF PRESCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

Hannah Parker, Sarah Burkart, Layton Reesor-Oyer, Michal T. Smith, Lauren von Klinggraeff, Roddrick Dugger, James W. White III, Olivia Finnegan, Meghan Bastyr, Christopher D. Pfledderer, Elizabeth L. Adams, R. Glenn Weaver, Michael W. Beets, Bridget Armstrong. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. BACKGROUND: Higher levels of physical activity (PA), are associated with positive health outcomes among children. Structured environments, such as daycare/preschool, may be a potential mechanism for promoting healthy behaviors and limiting discretionary time when children may engage in unhealthy behaviors; however, the literature examining the relationship between daycare/preschool and children engaging in PA has been mixed and limited in examination at the day-level. Understanding the potential role structure may have as a mechanism to improve movement behaviors of preschool-aged children may guide the development of effective intervention strategies. The current study used intensive longitudinal data to examine the within- and between-person effects of hours spent in daycare/preschool (i.e., structure) on children’s physical activity. METHODS: Children (N=67, 4.5±0.8 yrs, 49.3% female, 65.7% White) wore an Axivity AX3 accelerometer on their wrist 24 hours/day for 14 days. Data were processed with GGIR (v2.6-4) with the Roscoe et al. (2017) intensity thresholds for preschoolers. Caregivers reported the number of hours their child attended daycare/preschool each day. We ran linear mixed-effects models predicting day-level moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light physical activity (LPA) from hours spent in daycare. We included child age, sex, and wear-time as covariates. Weekends were excluded from analysis. RESULTS: Children wore accelerometers for an average of 9.3±1.2 (range = 1-11) days and 59 children attended daycare/preschool on at least one day. Children spent an average of 4.6±3.9 hrs/day in daycare/preschool and had an average of 120.7±30.0 min of MVPA/day and an average of 118.0±33.8 min of LPA/day. Mixed models indicated that for every 1-hour extra children spent in daycare/preschool above their own average daycare/preschool time, children had 1.1 min (95%CI = 0.25, 1.93) more MVPA/day and 1.4 min (95%CI = 0.65, 2.19) more LPA/day. CONCLUSION: On days when children attend more hours of daycare/preschool, beyond their typical daycare/preschool time, they have more minutes of MVPA and LPA. Daycare/preschool, as a source of structure, may be a day-level contextual factor to help improve movement behaviors in children. Future studies should examine the impact of structure from daycare/preschool on other movement behaviors such as sleep and sedentary behavior

ARE SPORTS THE CATALYST FOR MVPA BENEFITS IN OUT OF SCHOOL PROGRAMS? A MODERATION ANALYSIS IN ELEMENTARY-AGED CHILDREN

BACKGROUND: The structured days hypothesis (SDH) suggests when children are in structured environments, they have healthier movement behaviors, including more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Out of school programs (OSPs), such as sports, are a popular form of structured environments, and there is evidence that participation in these OSPs are associated with higher MVPA in elementary-aged children; however, it is not clear if sports are the primary driver of the association between OSPs and MVPA. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether attending sports programs, specifically, moderates the effect between OSPs and MVPA in elementary-aged children. METHODS Children (N=685; 48.7% female; 52.7% White; K-5th grade) participated in a 14-day observational protocol as part of a prospective cohort study in Spring 2022. Each night, parents completed texted surveys about their child’s participation in OSPs, including timing and type. Children wore an Actigraph GT9X accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist to measure MVPA. Accelerometer data were processed using GGIR (v 2.8-2). Linear mixed-effects models predicted day-level MVPA from time spent in OSPs. Moderation effects were examined with sports (coded as sports vs. no sports) by OSP time interaction. Only weekdays were included for this analysis. Sex, income, grade, time spent in school, and accelerometer non-wear time were included as covariates. RESULTS: Of the 421 children that attended OSPs, 53% attended sports programs, 34% attended after-school programs, and 13% attended other programs (art, dance, etc.). On average, on days when children went to an OSP, they attended for 117.2±55.0 minutes, specifically, children spent 96.8±53.7 minutes at sports, 156.2±54.7 minutes at after-school programs, and 103.0±57.6 minutes in other programs. Mixed-effects models suggested that time spent in OSPs on a given day were linked with higher MVPA for that day, such that children engaged in 0.1 more minutes of MVPA for every additional minute attending OSPs (95CI=0.1, 0.2). Attending sports programs specifically was not associated with additional MVPA beyond participating in other OSPs (B=-0.1±0.1; 95CI=-0.2, 0.0). CONCLUSION: On days when children spend more time in OSPs, they have higher MVPA, but there were not additional MVPA benefits when children were attending sports versus other OSPs. Our data supports the SDH suggesting that filling children’s time with structure, despite what type of structure it is, is associated with healthier movement behaviors