Patterns of health behaviours predict obesity in Australian children

The study aims to examine whether patterns of health behaviours (based on sleep duration, physical activity, screen time and diet) were associated with obesity in Australian children.

This paper included 1833 children aged 6-7 years (51.6% male) recruited in 2006 as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Latent class analysis was performed to identify the presence of distinct behavioural profiles on the basis of sleep duration, physical activity, screen time and eating habits. Logistic regression was performed to examine the association between the behavioural profiles and obesity assessed at baseline and 2-year follow-up.

Three behavioural profiles, healthy (27.7%), sedentary (24.8%) and short sleepers/unhealthy eaters (47.5%), were identified. Compared with the healthy profile, the sedentary profile (odds ratio = 1.59, 95% confidence interval (1.06-2.38)) and short sleepers/unhealthy eaters (odds ratio = 1.47 (1.03-2.13)) had elevated odds of obesity at 2-year follow-up.

The present study identified distinct profiles of health behaviours in this sample of Australian children. These findings add to existing findings that many health behaviours co-occur and that obesity interventions should target patterns of behaviours in children.