Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

"ICS Travel Award" Canadian youth reportedly spend 8.5 hours per day engaged in sedentary behaviour (SB). This is concerning as SB, independent of physical activity, is associated with numerous health consequences. SB is problematic in children with a chronic disease, as they tend to be restricted in movement and predisposed to secondary health problems. Little is known about SB in children with a chronic disease. The aims of this study were to (i) measure SB in children with a chronic disease; (ii) compare levels of SB in this sample to a Nationally-representative sample of Canadian children; and (iii) examine the relationship between SB and degree of adiposity. Seventy-five children, aged 6-18 with various chronic diseases, participated in this study. Adiposity was measured via body mass index (BMI), which was classified into percentiles according to CDC reference data. SB was measured by an accelerometer worn for 7 consecutive days and defined as <100 counts/min. Children with a chronic disease engaged in approximately 9.6±1.7 hours of daily SB, comprising 76.3±7.4% of average daily monitoring time. Boys and girls were more sedentary than a nationally-representative sample (9.7 vs. 8.5 hours/day, p<0.001 and 9.5 vs. 8.7 hours/day, p=0.008 respectively). When children were grouped by quartiles of SB, BMI percentile was lowest in the least sedentary quartile (Q1) and highest in the most sedentary quartile (Q4; 35.5±19.0 %ile vs. 58.0±18.9 %ile, p=0.01). These findings suggest that children with a chronic disease are more sedentary than their peers and more SB is related to a higher degree of adiposity.