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

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.