Cent Eur J Public Health 2015, 23(Supplement):S37-S43 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a4184

Physical Activity and Sedentary Screen Time in Obese and Overweight Children Living in Different Environments

Juozas Raistenskis¹, Aurelija Sidlauskiene¹, Rimante Cerkauskiene², Sigita Burokiene², Birute Strukcinskiene³, Raimondas Buckus⁴

¹ Department of Rehabilitation, Physical and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

² Clinic of Children's Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

³ Faculty of Health Sciences, Klaipeda University, Klaipeda, Lithuania

⁴ Public Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Aim: To assess the relationship of children's physical activity and sedentary screen time with overweight and obesity in children living in different environments (town and city) in Lithuania.

Methods: An analysis of anthropometric data from 532 children living in town and city areas was performed. A youth physical activity questionnaire (YPAQ) was conducted to evaluate physical activity and sedentary screen time.

Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the children was 25.5% in the town and 18.6% in the city. Children living in the town on average engaged 9.3 min/day less in moderate to vigorous physical activity (p=0.050) and had 33.2 MET-min/day lower energy expenditure than children living in the city. Sedentary screen time was extremely high on weekends in both town and city children.

Conclusions: A higher prevalence of overweight and obesity and a lower amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was found in children living in the town compared to children living in the city.

Keywords: obesity, physical activity, sedentary screen time, town, city, children

Received: November 14, 2014; Revised: March 15, 2015; Accepted: March 15, 2015; Published: November 1, 2015  Show citation