Abstract
Movement behaviors – sleep, sedentary behavior, and physical activity – affect children’s health. However, the differential effect of specific physical activity intensities remains understudied, particularly in low and middle income countries facing the double burden of disease. PURPOSE: To examine the associations of 24-hour movement behaviors on neurodevelopmental outcomes in Mexican preschoolers. We also explore the associations of movement behaviors with body mass index (BMI) and mediation by body mass index in the association with neurodevelopment. METHODS: 64 children (age = 4.36 ± 0.42 years, 48% female) in the Mexican pilot of the International Study of Movement Behaviors in the Early Years (SUNRISE) wore an accelerometer for ten days to assess time in light, moderate, and vigorous physical activity; sedentary behavior; and sleep. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the association of movement behaviors with neurodevelopment and BMI. Isotemporal substitution (ISM) modeled the reallocation of 10 minutes from each movement behavior to another to account for the existence of time use tradeoffs in behaviors. Finally, an agglomerative clustering algorithm was applied to extract participant profiles that would provide context for future intervention. Models accounted for age, sex, rurality/urbanicity, and household socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Neither regression nor ISM showed significant associations between movement behaviors and BMI. Regression models did show a negative association of sedentary behavior with working memory (β = -0.27, p = 0.036), and a positive association of vigorous activity with hand dexterity (β = 0.26, p = 0.046). ISM showed a positive association of reallocating 10 minutes of sedentary time or light activity to vigorous activity with working memory (β 0.26, p = 0.048; β = 0.28, p = 0.014). Furthermore, findings of the clustering method showed that individuals with poor working memory capacity tended to participate in less vigorous activity, had higher BMI, and tended to be from urban areas. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest vigorous activity may be important for working memory in preschoolers and there may be benefits to tailored interventions that substitute sedentary time and light activity for vigorous activity. Future studies should confirm these results with more robust sample sizes and through longitudinal or experimental studies, and address potential inequities in vigorous physical activity participation.
Recommended Citation
Corral, Christian; Jauregui de la Mota, Alejandra; Argumedo, Gabriela; Olvera, Armando G.; Aguilar, Nicolas; Okely, Anthony D.; and Salvo, Deborah
(2025)
"24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Mexican Preschoolers: Exploring BMI as a Potential Mediator,"
International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2:
Iss.
17, Article 41.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss17/41