Patterns of accelerometer-derived sedentary time across the lifespan

ABSTRACT

We aimed to describe ST and its patterns on a national level. A hip-worn accelerometer (ActiGraph GT1M) was used to collect data during waking hours from 4575 Portuguese’ participants from 2007–2009 (2683 females) aged 10–102 years old. Data was presented by sex, in 5-years age intervals, and by adolescents (n=2833), adults (n=1122), and older adults (n=620). Lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) smoothed percentile curves were estimated. Girls, women, and older women spent 61, 57, and 64% of wear time in ST, respectively. In males, ST represented 57, 60, and 62% of wear time respectively for boys, men, and older men. Comparing to other age groups, older adults spent a larger amount of ST in bouts ≥30-min (women: 33%, men: 39% of total ST). The number of breaks/ST hour were: 10.6 in girls, 11.7 in women, and 9.6 in older women. In males, the number of breaks/ST hour were: 11.2, 10.5, and 8.5 for boys, men, and older men. In conclusion, ST was not consistently higher at older ages. Instead, we found that the potential critical moments in which ST may be higher are during adolescence and in the transition from adulthood into older adulthood, which represents critical periods for interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Sedentary behaviour
• breaks in sedentary time
• bouts in sedentary time
• children
• adults

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants for their participation in the study and all staff that assisted in helping collecting data. DAS is supported by a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant: SFRH/BPD/92462/2013). PBJ is supported by a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant: SFRH/BPD/115977/2016). JPM is supported by a scholarship from from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (grant: SFRH/BD/85742/2012). The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

DAS was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/92462/2013]; JPM was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [SFRH/BD/85742/2012]; PBJ was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/115977/2016].