Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Community, Health and Nutrition, Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • 3 Faculty of Public Health, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • 4 Rehabilitation Sciences Unit, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
  • 5 Department of Emerging and Neglected Diseases, Biomedical Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 6 Population Health and Demography Unit, PNG Institute of Medical Research, Goroka, Papua New Guinea
  • 7 Capital Institutes of Paediatrics, Nurturing, Care for Young Children Research and Guidance Centre, Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of Child Development and Nutriomics, Beijing, China
  • 8 School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
  • 9 SAMRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • 10 Centre for Community Health Studies (ReaCH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan, Bangi, Malaysia
  • 11 Faculty of Sport and Health Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
  • 12 School of Health and Society and Early Start, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
  • 13 Department of Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Centre, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
  • 14 Department of Psychological Sciences and Health, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, UK
Child Care Health Dev, 2024 Nov;50(6):e70008.
PMID: 39564734 DOI: 10.1111/cch.70008

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Insufficient physical activity, excessive screen time and short sleep duration among young children are global public health concerns; however, data on prevalence of meeting World Health Organisation 24-h movement behaviour guidelines for 3-4-year-old children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited, and it is unknown whether urbanisation is related to young children's movement behaviours. The present study examined differences in prevalence of meeting 24-h movement behaviour guidelines among 3-4-year-old children living in urban versus rural settings in LMICs.

METHODS: The SUNRISE Study recruited 429, 3-4-year-old child/parent dyads from 10 LMICs. Children wore activPAL accelerometers continuously for at least 48 h to assess their physical activity and sleep duration. Screen time and time spent restrained were assessed via parent questionnaire. Differences in prevalence of meeting guidelines between urban- and rural-dwelling children were examined using chi-square tests.

RESULTS: Physical activity guidelines were met by 17% of children (14% urban vs. 18% rural), sleep guidelines by 57% (61% urban vs. 54% rural), screen time guidelines by 50% (50% urban vs. 50% rural), restrained guidelines by 84% (81% urban vs. 86% rural) and all guidelines combined by 4% (4% urban vs.4% rural). We found no significant differences in meeting the guidelines between urban and rural areas.

CONCLUSIONS: Only a small proportion of children in both rural and urban settings met the WHO 24-h movement guidelines. Strategies to improve movement behaviours in LMICs should consider including both rural and urban settings.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.