The Associations between Meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and Adiposity in Asian Adolescents: The Asia-Fit Study
Abstract Background: To prevent adolescent obesity, recent research suggests that physical activity (PA), recreational screen-time, and sleep duration are codependent behaviours that being in a movement behaviour continuum in a 24-hour period. Yet, it is unknown about compliance with the 24-hour movement guidelines in Asian adolescents, and how these movement behaviours collectively affect overweight and obesity in adolescents. The purposes of this study were to compare compliance with the 24-movement guidelines in Asian adolescents, as well as to examine the association between meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines and body fat percentage. Methods: A sample of 12,590 adolescents aged 13.63 (± 1.01) years from eight Asian metropolitan cities including Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong SAR, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China), Singapore, Taipei (Taiwan), and Tokyo (Japan) participated this study. The adolescents were asked to complete an interviewer-administered questionnaire to assess moderate-to-vigorous PA, recreational screen-time, sleep duration, and covariates. Adolescent’s body fat percentage was assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis.Results: Findings show that a small proportion of Asian adolescents met the independent or combined guidelines of PA, recreational screen-time, and sleep duration. In addition, number of the guideline being met and combinations of the guidelines being met differed across the eight cities. Adjusting for covariates, we observed a negative association between number of the guidelines being met and body fat percent in Asian adolescents. In addition, meeting only the sleep duration guideline and both the physical activity and sleep duration guidelines had negative associations with body fat percentage compared with no guidelines being met.Conclusions: The current study was the first to evaluate compliance with the 24-hour movement guidelines in Asia-wide adolescents. Given only 1%-3% adolescents met all three movement guidelines, global strategies are needed to promote healthy lifestyles in adolescents. This study also provides primary evidence on the association between compliance with the 24-hour movement guidelines and adiposity in adolescents. Prospective follow-up studies are warranted to gain better insights into the compliance with 24-hour movement guidelines and the related health outcomes to contribute to the growth of evidence in this area.