Eating Behaviour, Physical Activity, TV Exposure and Sleeping Habits in Five Year Olds: A Latent Class Analysis
Abstract Background Diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and sleep time are considered major contributory factors of the increased prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity. The aim of this study was to identify behavioural clusters of five year old children based on lifestyle behaviours, their association with sociodemographic and maternal characteristics and early feeding practices, and to determine if class membership was associated with cardio metabolic outcomes. Methods Latent class analysis of eating behaviour, engagement in active play, TV watching, and sleep duration in 1,229 five year old children from the Cork BASELINE birth cohort study was used to identify behavioral clusters. Determinants of cluster membership were investigated using multinomial logistic regression. Associations between the identified classes and cardio body measures were examined using multivariate logistic and linear regression, with cluster membership used as the independent variable.Results 51% of children belonged to a normative class, while 28% of children were in a class characterised by high scores on food avoidance scales in combination with low enjoyment of food, and 20% experienced high scores on the food approach scales. Children in both these classes had lower conditional probabilities of engaging in active play for at least one hour per day and sleeping for a minimum of 10 hours, and higher probability of watching TV for two hours or more, compared to the normative class. Children in the class with high scores on food approach scales, had higher fat mass index (FMI), lean mass index (LMI), and waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) compared to the normative class, and were at greater risk of overweight and obesity.Conclusion Findings suggest that eating behaviour appeared to influence overweight and obesity risk to a greater degree than activity levels at five years old. Further research of how potentially obesogenic behaviours in early life track over time and influence adiposity and other cardio metabolic outcomes is crucial to inform the timing of interventions.