Proportion of Chinese Children and Adolescents Meeting 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Associations with Overweight and Obesity.

Background: Since there is little knowledge about the 24-hour movement behaviors of Chinese children and adolescents, the purposes of this study were to investigate the proportion of Chinese children and adolescents meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and to further evaluate its relationship with overweight and obesity.

Methods: A total of 440 children and adolescents aged 7−18 years from 7 cities in China were selected to measure physical activity using accelerometers, and sleep (SLP) and screen time (ST) using questionnaires. The data were analyzed with the independent T-test, Mann−Whitney U test, Cox−Stuart test, chi-square test, and logistic regression.

Results: The proportion of Chinese children and adolescents meeting the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was 7.3%. Boys (11.8%) were higher than girls (3.4%) (p < 0.001) and showed a downward trend with age (Ptrend = 0.03). The rates of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents who met the ST, MVPA + ST, ST + SLP, and MVPA + SLP + ST guidelines were 39%, 15%, and 36%, and 25% did not meet any guidelines. The rates of overweight and obesity among those who met 1, 2, and 3 guidelines were lower than the rate among those who did not meet any guidelines (odds ratio (OR) = 0.51, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.22−1.17; OR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.13−0.77; OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.07−0.81) and showed a decreasing trend (Ptrend = 0.006).

Conclusions: The proportion of Chinese children and adolescents meeting the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was low. The rate of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents who met the overall 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was the lowest compared with the rates among those who met any one or two. There was a dose−response relationship between the number of guidelines met and the overweight and obesity rate.