Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 51, Issue 5, November 2010, Pages 345-351
Preventive Medicine

Review
Tracking of sedentary behaviours of young people: A systematic review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2010.07.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To review the empirical evidence concerning the strength of tracking of sedentary behaviours from childhood and adolescence.

Methods

Published English language studies were located from computerised and manual searches in 2009. Included studies were prospective, longitudinal studies with at least one sedentary behaviour for at least two time-points, with tracking coefficients reported, and included children (aged 3–11 years) and adolescents (12–18 years) at baseline.

Results

Based on data from 21 independent samples, tracking coefficients (r) ranged from 0.08 (over 16 years) to 0.73 (over 2 years) for TV viewing, from 0.18 (boys over 3 years) to 0.52 (over 2 years) for electronic game/computer use, from 0.16 (girls over 4 years) to 0.65 (boys over 2 years) for total screen time, and from −0.15 (boys over 2 years) to 0.48 (over 1 year) for total sedentary time. Study follow-up periods ranged from 1 to up to 27 years, and tracking coefficients tended to be higher with shorter follow-ups.

Conclusions

Sedentary behaviours track at moderate levels from childhood or adolescence. Data suggest that sedentary behaviours may form the foundation for such behaviours in the future and some may track slightly better than physical activity.

Introduction

The late Jeremy Morris reported more than half a century ago that a sedentary occupation was associated with greater health risk than its more active counterpart (Morris et al., 1953). However, it is not until more recent times that researchers have started to systematically address whether sedentary behaviour, operationally defined as behaviours involving predominantly sitting, have deleterious health consequences. Data from adults show links between sedentary behaviour and all-cause mortality (Dunstan et al., 2010, Katzmarzyk et al., 2009), cardiovascular disease (Katzmarzyk et al., 2009), obesity (Hu et al., 2003), and adverse metabolic profiles (Dunstan et al., 2007). Similar work with young people shows associations with body weight and obesity (Marshall et al., 2004, Vicente-Rodriguez et al., 2008, Hancox et al., 2004), adverse metabolic profiles (Ekelund et al., 2006), and poor fitness in later life (Hancox et al., 2004). These associations can vary in magnitude, can be complex, and may not always be independent of physical activity (Mitchell et al., 2009), but they do suggest that sedentary behaviour is an important area of study and in need of further development.

If reductions in sedentary behaviour prove to be important for health, we need to know more about the behaviour and whether it persists over time. It is likely that some sedentary behaviours, such as TV viewing or recreational computer use, have a strong habitual element, thus are likely to “track” over time, thus providing guidance, and challenges, for interventions designed to reduce such behaviours. Tracking is defined “as a tendency of individuals to maintain their rank or position in a group over time” (Telama, 2009, p. 1). While evidence has been summarised concerning the strength of tracking of physical activity (Telama, 2009, Malina, 1996), there is no review of the tracking of sedentary behaviours. The current paper, therefore, addresses this gap by reporting a systematic review of the tracking of sedentary behaviour from childhood or adolescence.

Section snippets

Methods

This study followed the procedures for a systematic review produced by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, 2001).

Results

The literature search yielded 6237 titles of potentially relevant articles and 14 papers (21 samples) were considered eligible for this review (see Table 1, Table 2). The majority of studies were conducted in the USA (n = 9). Six studies assessed tracking of sedentary behaviours for boys and girl combined, six assessed tracking separately for boys and girls, and two studies were on girls only. Five studies had a follow-up length of 2 years, three studies had follow-up of 3 years, two studies had 5 

Discussion

Sedentary behaviour research is experiencing rapid growth. Papers are now showing potentially important negative health outcomes for various markers of sedentary behaviour, when this is defined as sitting behaviours or an aggregate measure of total sedentary time. As a result, researchers in this field need to identify correlates of sedentary behaviour, including to what extent such behaviours are stable over time. The current review sought to identify the nature and strength of tracking of

Conclusion

Overall, sedentary behaviour does show some stability over time. Clearly, tracking will weaken with time, but there is evidence that different sedentary behaviours, and sedentary behaviour determined by accelerometry, will track during childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. There was little evidence for any gender differences in tracking, and most studies combined the assessment for boys and girls.

Tracking values for TV viewing appear to be slightly larger than for physical activity, but

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests.

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    The work was performed at the School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.

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