ArticleThe American journal of clinical nutrition2013
Physical activity intensity, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers.
Article in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 75 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
75 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 128 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unravelling the association between accelerometer-derived physical activity and adiposity among preschool children: A systematic review and meta-analyses.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic review of the relationships between physical activity and health indicators in the early years (0-4 years).BMC public health · 2017Pooled it
- Systematic review of the relationships between sedentary behaviour and health indicators in the early years (0-4 years).BMC public health · 2017Pooled it
- Body fat in children measured by DXA, air-displacement plethysmography, TBW and multicomponent models: a systematic review.Maternal and child health journal · 2015Pooled it
- Physical activity in infancy is associated with body composition at age three.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- Maternal and child factors associated with child body fatness in a Ghanaian cohort.Public health nutrition · 2020Trial
- Association of diet in nurseries and physical activity with zBMI in 2-4-year olds in England: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Are Preschoolers Meeting the Mark? Comparing the Dietary, Activity, and Sleep Behaviors of Preschoolers With Obesity to National Recommendations.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2018Trial
- Associations of Fat Mass and Fat-Free Mass with Physical Fitness in 4-Year-Old Children: Results from the MINISTOP Trial.Nutrients · 2016Trial
- Physical activity intensity, sedentary behavior, body composition and physical fitness in 4-year-old children: results from the ministop trial.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Rationale and methods of a randomised cross-over cluster trial to assess the effectiveness of MOVI-KIDS on preventing obesity in pre-schoolers.BMC public health · 2015Trial
- Effect of 12-month intervention with lipid-based nutrient supplements on physical activity of 18-month-old Malawian children: a randomised, controlled trial.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2015Trial
- Weekday-specific associations of movement behaviors with body composition in preschool children: A compositional data analysis.Biology of sport · 2026Article
- Are reallocating time to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity associated with preschoolers' body composition?International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Accelerometer based independent and combined associations of physical activity and sedentary time on physical fitness in preschool children: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Sedentary Time Patterns Among Preschoolers: Do Sex Disparities Exist?Childhood obesity (Print) · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Relationships of Physical Activity, Sedentary Time, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Muscular Fitness with Body Fatness in Preschoolers.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Association between Objectively measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior with Body Composition among Primary School Children.International journal of school health · 2024Article
- Health-Related Quality of Life in Relation to Health Behaviour Patterns among Canadian Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
15 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDetailed associations between physical activity (PA) subcomponents, sedentary time, and body composition in preschoolers remain unclear.
objectiveWe examined the magnitude of associations between objectively measured PA subcomponents and sedentary time with body composition in 4-y-old children.
designWe conducted a cross-sectional study in 398 preschool children recruited from the Southampton Women's Survey. PA was measured by using accelerometry, and body composition was measured by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Associations between light physical activity, moderate physical activity (MPA), vigorous physical activity (VPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) intensity; sedentary time; and body composition were analyzed by using repeated-measures linear regression with adjustment for age, sex, birth weight, maternal education, maternal BMI, smoking during pregnancy, and sleep duration. Sedentary time and PA were also mutually adjusted for one another to determine whether they were independently related to adiposity.
resultsVPA was the only intensity of PA to exhibit strong inverse associations with both total adiposity [P < 0.001 for percentage of body fat and fat mass index (FMI)] and abdominal adiposity (P = 0.002 for trunk FMI). MVPA was inversely associated with total adiposity (P = 0.018 for percentage of body fat; P = 0.022 for FMI) but only because of the contribution of VPA, because MPA was unrelated to fatness (P ≥ 0.077). No associations were shown between the time spent sedentary and body composition (P ≥ 0.11).
conclusionsIn preschoolers, the time spent in VPA is strongly and independently associated with lower adiposity. In contrast, the time spent sedentary and in low-to-moderate-intensity PA was unrelated to adiposity. These results indicate that efforts to challenge pediatric obesity may benefit from prioritizing VPA.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.