Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Population Study Article
  • Published:

Adolescent sedentary behavior and body composition in early adulthood: results from a cohort study

Pediatric Research volume 94, pages 1209–1215 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

This study investigates the cross-sectional and prospective associations between accelerometer-measured sedentary behavior and body composition from adolescence to early adulthood.

Methods

Data from the Santiago Longitudinal Study were analyzed (n = 212). Sedentary time was measured at age 16 years, and body composition (body mass index [BMI], waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio [WHtR], fat mass percentage, and lean mass percentage) was examined at both age 16 and 23 years. Adjusted linear regression models estimated associations between sedentary time, sedentary bout duration, and body composition, overall and by sex.

Results

In all analyses, mean sedentary bout duration was not associated with body composition. In cross-sectional analyses, more sedentary time during adolescence was significantly associated with lower BMI, waist circumference, WHtR, fat mass percentage, and higher lean mass percentage (p < 0.05). One standard deviation increase in daily sedentary time was prospectively associated with lower body mass index (β = −1.22 kg/m2, 95% CI: −2.02, −0.42), waist circumference (β = −2.39 cm, 95% CI: −4.03, −0.75), and WHtR (β = −0.014, 95% CI: −0.024, −0.004). Sedentary time at 16 years was not associated with changes in body composition from 16 to 23 years.

Conclusions

Sedentary behavior in adolescence is not adversely associated with body composition profiles in early adulthood.

Impact

  • Little is known about the effect of device-measured sedentary behavior on body composition during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood.

  • Among participants in the Santiago Longitudinal Study, more accelerometer-measured sedentary time during adolescence was associated with lower BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio in early adulthood though point estimates were generally small in magnitude.

  • Sedentary behavior in adolescence was not detrimentally associated with healthy body composition profiles in early adulthood. Public health interventions aimed at reducing obesity rates could consider other behaviors, such as physical activity and healthy diet, instead of sitting time.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Abarca-Gómez, L. et al. Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults. Lancet 390, 2627–2642 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee. 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Report (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).

  3. Carson, V. et al. Systematic review of sedentary behaviour and health indicators in school-aged children and youth: an update. Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 41(Suppl. 3), S240–S265 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Biddle, S. J. H., Bengoechea, E. G. & Wiesner, G. Sedentary behaviour and adiposity in youth: a systematic review of reviews and analysis of causality. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 14, 43 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Barnett, T. A. et al. Sedentary behaviors in today’s youth: approaches to the prevention and management of childhood obesity: a Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation 138, e142–e159 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Tremblay, M. S. et al. Sedentary Behavior Research Network (SBRN) – Terminology Consensus Project process and outcome. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 14, 75 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Chastin, S. F. M. et al. Systematic comparative validation of self-report measures of sedentary time against an objective measure of postural sitting (activPAL). Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 15, 21 (2018).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, I. M. & Shiroma, E. J. Using accelerometers to measure physical activity in large-scale epidemiological studies: issues and challenges. Br. J. Sports Med. 48, 197–201 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Young, D. R. et al. Sedentary behavior and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality: a Science Advisory from the American Heart Association. Circulation 134, e262–e279 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Gibbs, B. B. et al. Definition, measurement, and health risks associated with sedentary behavior. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 47, 1295–1300 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Cliff, D. P. et al. Objectively measured sedentary behaviour and health and development in children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes. Rev. 17, 330–344 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Mitchell, J. A. et al. Time spent in sedentary behavior and changes in childhood BMI: a longitudinal study from ages 9 to 15 years. Int. J. Obes. 37, 54–60 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Mcconnell-nzunga, J. et al. A 4-yr mixed longitudinal study of health behaviors and fat mass accrual during adolescence and early adulthood. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 54, 2178–2187 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Janz, K. F. et al. Physical activity, not sedentary time, predicts dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry-measured adiposity age 5 to 19 years. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 49, 2071–2077 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Gropper, H. et al. The impact of life events and transitions on physical activity: a scoping review. PLoS ONE 15, e0234794 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Hochberg, Z. E. & Konner, M. Emerging adulthood, a pre-adult life-history stage. Front. Endocrinol. 10, 918 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Yang, L. et al. Trends in sedentary behavior among the US population, 2001-2016. JAMA 321, 1587–1597 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Lozoff, B. et al. Behavioral and developmental effects of preventing iron-deficiency anemia in healthy full-term infants. Pediatrics 112, 846–854 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Burrows, R. et al. High cardiometabolic risk in healthy Chilean adolescents: associations with anthropometric, biological and lifestyle factors. Public Health Nutr. 19, 486–493 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Correa-Burrows, P. et al. Resolving early obesity leads to a cardiometabolic profile within normal ranges at 23 years old in a two-decade prospective follow-up study. Sci. Rep. 11, 18927 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Choi, L. et al. Assessment of Wear/Nonwear Time Classification Algorithms for Triaxial accelerometer. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 44, 2009–2016 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Evenson, K. R. et al. Calibration of two objective measures of physical activity for children. J. Sports Sci. 26, 1557–1565 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. McCarthy, H. D. & Ashwell, M. A study of central fatness using waist-to-height ratios in UK children and adolescents over two decades supports the simple message–‘keep your waist circumference to less than half your height’. Int. J. Obes. 30, 988–992 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Méndez, H. & de Méndez, C. Estratificación social y biología humana. Arch. Venez. Puer Ped. 49, 93–102 (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Burrows, A. R. et al. Dietary intake and physical activity in school age children. Rev. Med. Chil. 136, 53–63 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Barone Gibbs, B. et al. Sedentary time, physical activity, and adiposity: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations in CARDIA. Am. J. Prev. Med. 53, 764–771 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Campbell, S. D. I. et al. Sedentary behavior and body weight and composition in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sports Med. 48, 585–595 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Ferrari, G. L. M. et al. Sedentary behavior, physical activity and body composition in adults. Rev. Assoc. Med. Bras. 66, 314–320 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Silva, B. G. Cd et al. Associations of physical activity and sedentary time with body composition in Brazilian young adults. Sci. Rep. 9, 5444 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Matthews, C. E. et al. Amount of time spent in sedentary behaviors in the United States, 2003-2004. Am. J. Epidemiol. 167, 875–881 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Jurado-Fasoli, L. et al. Association between sleep quality and body composition in sedentary middle-aged adults. Medicine 54, 91 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Park, H. K., Kim, J. & Shim, Y. S. Association between sleep duration and body composition in girls ten to eighteen years of age: a population-based study. Child Obes. 16, 281–290 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Micklesfield, L. K. et al. Adolescent physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep in relation to body composition at age 18 years in urban South Africa, Birth-to-Twenty+ Cohort. BMC Pediatr. 21, 30 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans 2nd edn (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors have immense gratitude for the volunteers who took part in the Santiago Longitudinal Study. In addition, we thank Dr. Erin Delker for her assistance with the data analysis performed in this study.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (T32HL079891, R01HL088530, 1K01HL129087-01A1) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD33487, R03HD097295). E.B. acknowledges ANID - MILENIO - NCS2021_013. The funders had no role in the design, conduct, analysis, and decision to publish results from this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health (Epidemiology), San Diego, CA, USA

    Eric T. Hyde

  2. Academic General Pediatrics, Child Development, and Community Health, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Sheila Gahagan

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Suzanna M. Martinez

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Patricia East

  5. Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    David Wing

  6. Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    David Wing

  7. Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Raquel Burrows, Paulina Correa Burrows, Cecilia Algarín, Patricio Peirano & Sussanne Reyes

  8. Centro de Investigación en Sociedad y Salud y Núcleo Milenio de Sociomedicina, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile

    Estela Blanco

Authors
  1. Eric T. Hyde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sheila Gahagan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Suzanna M. Martinez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Patricia East
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. David Wing
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Raquel Burrows
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Paulina Correa Burrows
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Cecilia Algarín
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Patricio Peirano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Sussanne Reyes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Estela Blanco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

E.T.H., S.G., S.M.M., P.E., and E.B. contributed to the conception and design of the study. E.T.H. led the drafting of the manuscript. E.B. and R.B. led the data acquisition, and D.W. led the cleaning of the accelerometer data. P.C.B., C.A., P.P., and S.R. provided expert technical assistance on the Santiago Longitudinal Study. E.B. and S.G. supervised the project. All co-authors participated in the review and writing of the final version of the manuscript and gave final approval of this version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Estela Blanco.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All participants provided assent at the adolescent visit (age 16 years) and informed consent at the early adulthood visit (age 23 years).

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hyde, E.T., Gahagan, S., Martinez, S.M. et al. Adolescent sedentary behavior and body composition in early adulthood: results from a cohort study. Pediatr Res 94, 1209–1215 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02616-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02616-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links