Physical activity levels in moms and preschool-age children are linked, a new study has found.
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Researchers in the UK studied more than 500 mothers and their 4 year olds, and compared their activities for specific time periods, matched to the hour and day, over a maximum of seven days. The time spent sleeping was excluded.
The mothers and children wore Actiheart exercise monitors continuously over the time period of observation, even while sleeping or doing water-based activities, to measure their activity levels. Researchers divided activity levels into three categories – sedentary, light, and moderate-to-vigorous.
They found that daily activity levels of mothers and children were positively and significantly associated at all activity intensities. Each extra minute the mothers spent in daily activities led to 0.18 minutes more sedentary time, 0.14 minutes more light activity and 10% more moderate-to-vigorous activity in kids.
“This suggests mothers and children are active concurrently,” said the researchers. They added that prior research in smaller studies has also shown an association between objectively measured physical activity in mothers and their preschoolers.
However, this association was affected by factors such as the weight of the child and the mother, the mother’s education and working status, and whether the child attended full-time or part-time preschool. The study also did not consider the effect of the father’s or siblings’ physical activity on the child under observation.
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