Objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood: a cohort study Ortega Porcel, Francisco Bartolomé Konstabel, K. Pasquali, E. Ruiz Ruiz, Jonatan Hurtig-Wennlöf, A. Mäestu, J. Löf, M. Harro, J. Bellocco, R. Labayen, Idoia Veidebaum, T. Sjöström, Michael Heart Adolescents Children Cohort studies Behavior Schools Health Accelerometers Background To know how moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time change across lifespan periods is needed for designing successful lifestyle interventions. We aimed to study changes in objectively measured (accelerometry) MVPA and sedentary time from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to young adulthood. Methods Estonian and Swedish participants from the European Youth Heart Study aged 9 and 15 years at baseline (N = 2312) were asked to participate in a second examination 6 (Sweden) to 9/10 (Estonia) years later. 1800 participants with valid accelerometer data were analyzed. Results MVPA decreased from childhood to adolescence (−1 to −2.5 min/d per year of follow-up, P = 0.01 and <0.001, for girls and boys respectively) and also from adolescence to young adulthood (−0.8 to −2.2 min/d per year, P = 0.02 and <0.001 for girls and boys, respectively). Sedentary time increased from childhood to adolescence (+15 and +20 min/d per year, for girls and boys respectively, P<0.001), with no substantial change from adolescence to young adulthood. Changes in both MVPA and sedentary time were greater in Swedish than in Estonian participants and in boys than in girls. The magnitude of the change observed in sedentary time was 3–6 time larger than the change observed in MVPA. Conclusions The decline in MVPA (overall change = 30 min/d) and increase sedentary time (overall change = 2:45 h/d) observed from childhood to adolescence are of concern and might increase the risk of developing obesity and other chronic diseases later in life. These findings substantially contribute to understand how key health-related behaviors (physical activity and sedentary) change across important periods of life. 2013-10-31T09:46:19Z 2013-10-31T09:46:19Z 2013 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Ortega, F.B.; et al. Objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood: a cohort study. Plos One, 8(4): e60871 (2013). [doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060871] 1932-6203 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060871 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/28994 10.1371/journal.pone.0060871 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Public Library of Science