Research Study Abstract

Are preschool children active enough in Shanghai: an accelerometer-based cross-sectional study

  • Published on April 25, 2019

Objective
Engaging in physical activity (PA) plays an important role in promoting physical and mental health, but the PA data for Chinese preschool children are lacking. This study aims to objectively assess the PA levels of preschool children in Shanghai, China and to evaluate their PA levels relative to age-specific recommendations.

Design, setting and participants
A cross-sectional study was conducted among preschool children in Shanghai, city of China. There were a total of 303 preschool children (boys, 174; girls, 129) recruited from eight kindergarten classes in the Yangpu and Baoshan Districts of Shanghai.

Main outcome measures
Daily PA was assessed using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers for seven consecutive days. Children were required to have data from at least 2weekdays and 1weekend day, with a minimum daily wear time of 480min to be included in the analysis.

Results
Preschool children in Shanghai accumulated, on average, 70.9min of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and 168.0min of total PA (TPA) per day (d). Boys engaged in more MVPA and TPA than girls (72.8min/day vs 68.3min/ day and 171.9min/day vs 162.9min/day, respectively). Overall, 72.9% of the participants met the age-specific recommendations of MVPA, while 35.3% met TPA recommendations.

Conclusions
Findings of this study warn of the insufficiency of PA in Shanghai preschool children, suggesting there is substantial room to improve their PA.

Author(s)

  • Minghui Quan 1
  • Hanbin Zhang 2
  • Jiayi Zhang 3
  • Tang Zhou 1
  • Jinming Zhang 4
  • Guanggao Zhao 5
  • Hui Fang 1
  • Shunli Sun 1
  • Ru Wang 1
  • Peijie Chen 1

Institution(s)

  • 1

    School of Kinesiology, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China
  • 2

    Health Promotion Center, Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hangzhou, China
  • 3

    Editorial Department of Medicine and Health, China Science Publishing and Media Ltd, Shanghai, UK
  • 4

    College of Sport Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taishan Medical University, Taian, China
  • 5

    Department of Physical Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China

Journal

BMJ Open

Download Abstract

e024090.full

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