Association Between Physical Activity, Sedentary Time, And BMI Percentile Among Hispanic Pre-school Children: 2151 Board #70 May 28 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

For healthy growth and development, physical activity (PA) guidelines for preschool-aged children suggest at least 3 hours/day of combined structured and unstructured PA. Prevention of childhood overweight and obesity is another health priority in this population. Among 1-6-year-old Hispanic children in Puerto Rico, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is approximately 60%. However, the association between obesity and accelerometer-based PA and sedentary time (ST) in this population have not been previously documented. PURPOSE: To describe PA and ST, and test the association between obesity and PA, and between obesity and ST in Hispanic pre-school children. METHODS: A group of 25 children (Boys = 10, Girls = 15, aged 3 to 5 years old) attending a pre-school at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) and their parents volunteered to participate. Children’s measures of height and weight, and 7-day waist-worn accelerometer data were obtained. Parents completed a socio-demographic, and family health and home environment questionnaire. Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman correlation analyses conducted to test for sex differences and associations between variables. RESULTS: Light PA (1.6±0.4 hr/day), moderate PA (0.9±0.2 hr/day), vigorous PA (0.2±0.1 hr/day), ST (11.3±0.7 hr/day), and BMI percentile (63.8±30.6) were not different between boys and girls. Overweight (13%) and obesity (22%) was lower in our children participants compared to previous reports in pre-school aged Hispanic children. A significant and inverse correlation between BMI percentile and vigorous PA (rho= -0.46, P=0.04), and BMI percentile and number of household TV sets (rho= -0.55, P=0.008) was observed. CONCLUSION: Combining light, moderate and vigorous PA/day (2.7 hr/day); pre-school children in this study approached PA guidelines. Nonetheless, ST was high. Our results also show that those who engage in more vigorous PA have lower BMI percentile, suggesting that PA intensity might be relevant for obesity prevention in this young age group. The inverse association between number of TV sets per household and BMI percentile was unexpected; thus, requiring further analyses.