Source: Preventive Medicine, 2010, Articles in Press

Authors: Stuart Biddle, Natalie Pearson, Gemma Ross, Rock Braithwaite

Commentary by Rona Macniven, Cluster for Physical Activity and Health (CPAH), University of Sydney

This review examines evidence of the tracking of sedentary behaviours from childhood and adolescence, demonstrating moderate levels of tracking into adulthood. Finding out about the tracking of sedentary behaviour is important for decision making around the most effective age groups to focus interventions to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. 

Database searches uncovered 14 papers relating to 21 study samples which met the inclusion criteria of being published in English, having a prospective or longitudinal design measuring at least one sedentary behavior for at least two time-points, reporting tracking coefficients and including children, defined as aged 3-11 years, and adolescents defined as aged 12-18 years, at baseline.

Study follow-up periods ranged from 1 to 27 years. The findings revealed that, in general, tracking coefficients tended to be higher with shorter follow-ups. Tracking coefficients (r, where r=0.10-0.29 was defined as small, 0.30-0.49 was moderate and over 0.5 was large) ranged from 0.08 (over a period of 16 years) to 0.73 (over 2 years) for TV viewing specifically. For electronic game/computer use, tracking coefficients ranged from 0.18 (for boys only, over 3 years) to 0.52 (over 2 years), from 0.16 (girls only over 4 years) to 0.65 (boys only over 2 years) for total screen time, and for total sedentary time, an inverse relationship of tracking behaviour was found (-0.15 for boys only over 2 years) but at the opposite end of the range, a moderate tracking level of 0.48 (over 1 year) was also evident.

Some methodological issues should be taken into consideration with regard to these findings. With increasingly complex forms of technology developing rapidly, precise measurement of sedentary behaviour becomes increasingly complicated. In addition, using correlation coefficients does not always capture absolute behaviour change accurately; however, this was the measure used in the majority of studies included in this review.

In general, however, this review provides good quality evidence of how sedentary behaviors track at moderate levels from childhood or adolescence, some tracking at higher levels than physical activity. This highlights the importance of early intervention to prevent sedentary behaviour habits from forming, both for the current health of young people and in adopting healthier behaviours across the lifespan.

Access to this article will be dependent on your Institutional rights. Click here to visit full article.

This AusPAnet webpage is updated regularly. If you would like to keep the content from this commentary, please ensure you save the page directly to your computer, as the current content will be eventually replaced.

Back to AusPAnet home page.