Physical activity and sleep patterns in children attending after-school programs in Arizona: a cross-sectional study

Most children in the United States do not meet the recommended daily physical activity (PA) and sleep guidelines. This study described the contribution of after-school programs to children's daily moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), the prevalence of meeting the U.S. MVPA guidelines (60 min daily), sleep duration (9-12 h daily), and sleep efficiency (≥ 85% daily) guidelines, and differences by gender, age, and school-level income.

This cross-sectional study included 72 children (8-12 years, grades 3-6) attending after-school programs at 14 elementary schools in a public school district in Arizona. The children wore ActiGraph GT3X + accelerometers for at least three weekdays and one weekend day for 10 h/day to measure PA and sleep. The time spent in MVPA intensity was calculated during after-school programming, and overall MVPA and sleep were averaged across all daily hours. Fisher's exact test was used to examine differences in the prevalence of meeting MVPA and sleep guidelines.

After-school programs contributed an average of 35 min of daily MVPA among participants. Nearly all (99%) of the children met the PA guidelines, 40% met the sleep efficiency guidelines, and none met the sleep duration recommendations. No statistically significant differences were observed by age, gender, or school-level income (p > 0.05).

Although after-school programs effectively support PA, adherence to sleep guidelines remains challenging. After-school programs alone may not be sufficient to improve sleep outcomes. Future studies should explore potential differences in sleep habits between days children attend and do not attend after-school programs.