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Abstract
Background: The use of step count and TV viewing time to discriminate youngsters with hyperglycaemia is still a matter of debate.
Aim: To establish cut-off values for step count and TV viewing time in children and adolescents using glycaemia as the reference criterion.
Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1044 schoolchildren aged 6–18 years from Northeastern Brazil. Daily step counts were assessed with a pedometer over 1 week and TV viewing time by self-report.
Results: The area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 0.52–0.61 for step count and from 0.49–0.65 for TV viewing time. The daily step count with the highest discriminatory power for hyperglycaemia was 13 884 (sensitivity = 77.8; specificity = 51.8) for male children and 12 371 (sensitivity = 55.6; specificity = 55.5) and 11 292 (sensitivity = 57.7; specificity = 48.6) for female children and adolescents respectively. The cut-off for TV viewing time with the highest discriminatory capacity for hyperglycaemia was 3 hours/day (sensitivity = 57.7–77.8; specificity = 48.6–53.2).
Conclusion: This study represents the first step for the development of criteria based on cardiometabolic risk factors for step count and TV viewing time in youngsters. However, the present cut-off values have limited practical application because of their poor accuracy and low sensitivity and specificity.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Municipal Education and Health Departments of Amargosa, Bahia, Brazil, for help with the study.
Declaration of interest
This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia – FAPESB, Brazil, Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES, Brazil, and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT, Portugal (FCT:UID/DTP/00617/2013). The authors report no conflicts of interest.