31st Jan 2024

Introduction: Movement behaviours (physical activity – PA, sedentary behaviour and sleep) have been associated with physical, cognitive, socio-emotional and motor outcomes in early childhood, a critical period for child development, which have repercussions on health during adult life. However, previous studies report that Brazilian 3-to-5 year old children are below the recommended levels for movement behaviours, and there is no evidence regarding toddlers compliance with the World Health Organization´s (WHO) guidelines. Thus, this study aimed to assess the compliance with the 24 h Movement behaviours in a sample of low-income Brazilian toddlers.
Methods: This cross-sectional study comprised 150 toddlers (75 girls) aged between 12-35 months. Participants wore accelerometers (Actigraph GT3X+) for 24 h over 7 consecutive days to assess physical activity. Parents reported children´s screen time, night sleep duration, and sociodemographic data. Nap time was registered by the research team. Toddlers were classified as compliant or non-compliant with the WHO movement behaviours guidelines: i) ≥180 minutes of PA; ii) 0 hour of sedentary screen time for those aged 1 year, and ≤1 hour for those aged 2 years; and iii) between 11 and 14 hours of good quality sleep, including naps, and percentage of compliance was calculated using SPSS ( 28.0). Results: For the general sample, none of the children complied with the screen time recommendation, 1% complied with sleep time, and less than 25%, independent of sex, complied with PA recommendations. Only 22% of children complied with all the three recommendations simultaneously. For boys and girls, movement behaviours compliance values were similar (20% and 24%, respectively). Conclusions: Very few Brazilian toddlers are compliant with the guidelines. Strategies and programs to promote compliance with movement behaviours guidelines should urgently consider toddlers, as a way to minimize the low compliance seen in preschoolers.