Preschool-aged children 24-hour movement behaviours before and during COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) affected health, economies, and lifestyles, but little is known about its impact on children. We aimed to investigate changes in 24-hour (h) movement behaviours of pre-school children before and during COVID-19, and factors that influenced these. Children aged 3-6 years were recruited in Beijing in 2019, and their movement behaviours over 24 h assessed by questionnaire, as part of the International Study of Movement Behaviors in the Early Years (SUNRISE) study. We conducted the survey again during COVID-19, and compared the children’s movement behaviours before and during COVID-19 and associated factors. Overall, 196 parents completed the survey at both time points. The percentage of children meeting movement guidelines decreased during the pandemic (p < 0.01). Total physical activity decreased less among children getting good quality sleep or with more adults in the household (p < 0.01). Children who were not cared for primarily by their mother had a greater decrease in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (p = 0.02), but the decrease was smaller among children whose parents used the internet to support their physical activity and/or screen time (p < 0.05). Children who used electronic screen devices in the 2 h before bedtime or whose parents reported body temperature in webchats had a greater increase in sedentary screen time (p < 0.05). Children spending more time outdoors showed a smaller decrease in sleep (p < 0.01). Overall, children’s movement behaviours changed significantly during the pandemic.

Keywords

24-H movement behaviours / Physical activity / Sedentary screen time / Sleep / Children / COVID-19 pandemic

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this work.

Funding

This project was supported by Public service development and reform pilot project of Beijing Medical Research Institute (BMR2021-3). Beijing Municipal Health Commission; High-level Public Health Technical Personnel Construction Project; Academic Leader-01-17. The funding body had no role in the design, analysis or writing of this article.

Ethical approval statement

The research was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Capital Institute of Pediatrics under the code NO. SHERLL2020016. Informed consent was obtained from children’s parents or guardians.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Mingming Cui: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Xiaojuan Wang: Data curation. Zhaoxu Lu: Data curation. Anthony D. Okely: Supervision, Project administration. Katharina Kariippanon: Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Ellie K. Taylor: Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Ting Zhang: Supervision, Funding acquisition. Hongyan Guan: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Acknowledgement statement

We would like to thank all the parents, children, kindergarten staff, and data collectors who participated in this study. We thank the SUNRISE Leadership Group members for their contribution to the conceptualisation and support for the implementation of the SUNRISE pilot study. We would also like to thank the following individuals for their contribution and all of the medical workers involved in the study, for their enthusiasm, hard work and ongoing support: Yi-wen Huang and Jia-hui Chang et al. We thank Melissa Leffler, MBA, from Liwen Bianji (Edanz) (www.liwenbianji.cn) for editing the English text of this manuscript.

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