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Adherence to 24-h movement behaviour guidelines in families with multiple children
Leigh R Tooth1, Gregore I Mielke1, Katrina M Moss1
1Australian Women and Girls' Health Research Centre, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Insights
Families with children in the same age categories for screen time guidelines are more likely to meet all 24-hour movement guidelines. Tailored strategies are needed for families with children in different age groups to improve adherence to sleep, physical activity, and screen time recommendations.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatrics
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- The World Health Organization (WHO) released global 24-hour movement guidelines in 2019, integrating sleep, physical activity, and screen time.
- Previous research indicated challenges for families in adhering to age-specific screen time guidelines across different child age groups.
- This study investigates adherence to broader 24-hour movement guidelines in families with children across varying age-based guideline categories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if families with children in different age-based movement guideline categories exhibit poorer adherence to the overall 24-hour movement guidelines compared to families with all children in the same age category.
- To analyze the association between children's age categories and adherence to collective and individual 24-hour movement guidelines.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (1973-1978 cohort, 2015 survey) and the Mothers and their Children's Health sub-study (2016/2017).
- Included 1787 women (families) and their 4064 children (mean age 7.2 years).
- Employed adjusted logistic regression to analyze the association between children's age categories (same vs. different) and adherence to 24-hour movement guidelines.
Main Results:
- Families with children in the same age guideline categories showed double the odds of all children meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines (aOR 1.95).
- For screen time guidelines, same-age categories increased the odds of all children meeting guidelines (aOR 2.25) and decreased odds of mixed adherence (aOR 0.18).
- Conversely, same-age categories for physical activity guidelines decreased the odds of all children meeting (aOR 0.57) or mixed adherence (aOR 0.08). No significant association was found for sleep guidelines.
Conclusions:
- Families with children spanning different age categories may require practical strategies to adhere to 24-hour movement guidelines.
- Public health initiatives should raise awareness and provide targeted support to improve guideline adherence in diverse family structures.
- Addressing age-related complexities in movement behavior guidelines is crucial for promoting child health.
Background:
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the first global movement guidelines for children that combined sleep, physical activity and screen time. Our previous research showed that adherence to age-specific guidelines for screen time was challenging for families with children in different age groups. We aimed to determine whether families with children in different age-based movement guideline categories have poorer adherence to the broader 24-h movement guidelines than those with all children in the same age category.
Methods:
Data were from the 1973-1978 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (seventh survey, 2015) and the women's three youngest children (aged ≤12) (Mothers and their Children's Health sub-study, 2016/2017). The sample was 1787 women (families) with 4064 children (mean age 7.2 [SD 2.9]). Whether children in the family were in the same or different age-based category was determined by matching children's ages in a family against age-based guideline categories for the 24-h movement behaviours. The association between children in the family being in the same or different age-based guideline category on adherence to 24-h movement guidelines, both collectively and individually, was analysed by adjusted logistic regression (binary and multinomial).
Results:
Families with children in the same age guideline categories had double the odds of having all children meet 24-h movement guidelines (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.95 [95% confidence interval, CI: 1.32, 2.86]). Families with children in the same age categories on the screen guideline had higher odds of all children meeting (2.25 [1.73, 2.93]) and lower odds of some meeting/some failing the screen guideline (0.18 [0.14, 0.25]), than families with all children in different age categories. Families with children in the same age categories on the physical activity guideline had lower odds of all children meeting (0.57 [0.43, 0.75]) or some meeting/some failing the physical activity guideline (0.08 [0.06, 0.12]). No associations were found for sleep guidelines.
Conclusions:
Families with multiple children may need practical advice and strategies on how to adhere to guidelines when children span age categories. This could form part of public health strategies that raise awareness of the guidelines and may improve guideline adherence.
