Relationships between 24-hour movement behaviours and mental health in English primary school children - ISBNPA Xchange Conference presentation June 2020
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Purpose: 24 hour movement behaviours represented by sleep, sedentary behaviour (SB), light physical activity (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may influence child mental health, which is under-researched relative to indicators of physical health. The study aims were (1) to examine the relationships between 24-hour movement behaviours and indicators of mental health in English primary school children, and (2) to investigate the predicted differences in mental health outcomes when time was reallocated between the movement behaviours.
Methods: Wrist-mounted accelerometers were worn continuously for 7-days by 132 children (66 boys) aged 9-10 years. Following processing, estimates of time spent sleeping, and in SB, LPA, and MVPA were calculated. Questionnaires were used to assess social and emotional wellbeing (SEW), prosocial behaviour (PSB), depression symptoms (DEP), and self-esteem (SE). To account for the mutually exclusive and co-linear nature of the movement behaviours compositional data analysis was used to express the movement behaviours in relative terms as isometric log-ratio coordinates. For aim 1, regression models adjusted for sex, age, parental education level, and BMI examined the influence of each movement behaviour on the outcomes, relative to the other behaviours. For aim 2 differences in mental health outcomes between the baseline composition and new compositions when 15 minutes was added to each movement behaviour in turn was calculated.
Results: Movement behaviours did not significantly predict SEW, DEP, and SE. PSB was significantly predicted by sleep (ß= 3.26 (1.36), p=.018) and SB (ß=-3.05 (1.12), p=0.007). The greatest predicted changes in mental health outcomes were observed when MVPA increased by 15-minutes with a proportional 15-minute decrease in the remaining behaviours. Specifically, there were favourable predicted changes in SEW (-0.25), DEP (-0.68), and SE (+0.51). Moreover, adding 15-minutes to SB reflected a predicted 0.12 decrease in PSB, while allocating this time to sleep resulted in a 0.12 predicted increase.
Conclusions: The relationships between 24-hour movement behaviours and mental health of the children in this study were equivocal. The exception was prosocial behaviour which was significantly related to sleep and SB. Time reallocations suggested that increasing MVPA may have a favourable influence on some mental health outcomes.