title: 24-h actigraphic monitoring of motor activity, sleeping and eating behaviors in underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Within a chronobiological perspective, the present study aimed to describe 24 h of sleep-wake cycle, motor activity, and food intake patterns in different body mass index (BMI) categories of children through 7 days of actigraphic recording.
  
  
  METHODS
  Height and weight were objectively measured for BMI calculation in a sample of 115 Italian primary schoolchildren (10.21 ± 0.48 years, 62.61 % females). According to BMI values, 2.60 % were underweight, 61.70 % were of normal weight, 29.60 % were overweight and 6.10 % were obese. Participants wore a wrist actigraph continuously for 7 days to record motor activity and describe sleep-wake patterns. In addition, participants were requested to push the event-marker button of the actigraph each time they consumed food to describe their circadian eating patterns.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BMI group differences were found for sleep quantity (i.e. midpoint of sleep and amplitude), while sleep quality, 24-h motor activity and food intake patterns were similar between groups. Regression analyses showed that BMI was negatively predicted by sleep duration on schooldays. BMI was also predicted by motor activity and by food intake frequencies recorded at particular times of day during schooldays and at the weekend.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The circadian perspective seems to provide promising insight into childhood obesity, but this aspect needs to be further explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127, Bologna, Italy. monica.martoni@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martoni
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Cronobiologia do Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.|Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psiquiatria e Ciências do Comportamento, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carissimi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Caserta, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tonetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Natale
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D013851:Thinness / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Actigraphy; Body mass index; Children; Eating behavior; Motor activity; Sleep