title: Levels and Patterns of Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Time in 4-Year-Old Swedish Children.
abstract: Levels of physical activity (PA) affect health already at 4 years of age. The aims of this study were to describe levels and patterns of PA and sedentary time (ST) in a sample of 4-year-old Swedish children and to assess the number of children achieving PA guidelines throughout the week.
  
  
  
  Data from 540 4-year-old children enrolled in the population-based PRIMROSE trial was used. PA was measured for a period of 1 week by the Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometer. Average PA, time spent in light PA, moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and ST were assessed.
  
  
  
  On average children spent 6.7% of the day in MVPA and 45% of the day being sedentary and 33% (n = 178) of the children met the PA guidelines of 60 minutes of MVPA per day. Boys spent 56.8 (SD 21.8) minutes/day in MVPA, while girls spent 43.0 (SD 18.1) minutes/day in MVPA (P < .001).
  
  
  
  Four-year-old children spent almost half of the day being sedentary and only one-third meet the recommended PA guidelines. This finding is alarming as higher levels of PA, already at 4 years of age, seem to reduce the risk of childhood obesity and provides long-term health benefits.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Berglind
authors: Lena
authors: L
authors: Hansson
authors: Per
authors: P
authors: Tynelius
authors: Finn
authors: F
authors: Rasmussen
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013548:Sweden
keywords: accelerometry; daycare; pediatric; sedentary behavior