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Sunny days, cloudy behavior? Associations between weather patterns and movement behaviors in preschoolers using

Pablo Campos-Garzón1, Per Tynelius2, Michael Lundberg3

  • 1Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; SPORT Research Group (CTS-1024), CIBIS (Centro de Investigación para El Bienestar y La Inclusión Social) Research Center, University of Almería, Carr. Sacramento, S/N, La Cañada, Almería, 04120, Spain.

Environmental Research
|June 3, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Daily weather significantly impacts preschool children's physical activity. Cold, cloudy, and rainy days lead to less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and more sedentary behavior (SB), especially on weekends.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Health
  • Pediatric Public Health
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Understanding factors influencing children's physical activity is crucial for public health.
  • Daily weather represents a dynamic environmental exposure that may affect movement behaviors.
  • Preschool-aged children's activity patterns are particularly sensitive to environmental changes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the relationship between daily weather conditions and movement behaviors (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA], light physical activity [LPA], and sedentary behavior [SB]) in Swedish preschool children.
  • To determine if these associations differ by sex and day type (weekdays vs. weekends).

Main Methods:

  • 3307 preschool children (4.5±0.9 years) wore accelerometers for 14 days to measure movement behaviors.
  • Weather data (temperature, sunshine, daylight, precipitation, snow) were collected.
  • Principal component analysis and k-means clustering identified four weather categories; compositional data analysis assessed associations.

Main Results:

  • Four weather clusters were identified: sunny/warm, cold/cloudy, rainy, and cloudy.
  • Compared to sunny/warm days, cold/cloudy days were associated with significantly less MVPA and LPA, and more SB.
  • Rainy and cloudy days also showed reduced physical activity and increased SB, with greater reductions on weekends.

Conclusions:

  • Daily weather conditions significantly influence the movement-behavior composition of preschool children.
  • Short-term environmental variability substantially impacts young children's daily activity patterns.
  • Weather should be recognized as a dynamic exposure when interpreting movement data and understanding early childhood activity patterns.
Abstract

Keywords:
AccelerometryPhysical activityPreschool childrenSedentary behaviorWeather conditions

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