Association between sedentary behavior time and waist-to-height ratio in preschool children.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To explore the association between sedentary behavior time (SB), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) in preschool children. METHODS: This study included 646 preschool children (4- to 6-years old). WHtR was calculated as the ratio of waist/height with a cutoff of 0.5 used to define risk of abdominal obesity. Sedentary behavior was measured during 7 consecutive days by accelerometer. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between SB and WHtR. RESULTS: The prevalence of central obesity (WHtR) was 52.4 and 39.2% for girls and boys, respectively. Boys classified as being at risk for central obesity were more likely to spend more time in SB (OR 1.6; CI 1.1-2.5; P ≤ 0.05), adjusted by age (P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggested that boys classified as having higher SB were more likely to having more central obesity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28746-748, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.