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. 2007 Mar;4(3):e97.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040097.

Objectively measured physical activity and fat mass in a large cohort of children

Andy R Ness  1 , Sam D Leary, Calum Mattocks, Steven N Blair, John J Reilly, Jonathan Wells, Sue Ingle, Kate Tilling, George Davey Smith, Chris Riddoch
Affiliations

Objectively measured physical activity and fat mass in a large cohort of children

Andy R Ness et al. PLoS Med. 2007 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have been unable to characterise the association between physical activity and obesity, possibly because most relied on inaccurate measures of physical activity and obesity.

Methods and findings: We carried out a cross sectional analysis on 5,500 12-year-old children enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Total physical activity and minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured using the Actigraph accelerometer. Fat mass and obesity (defined as the top decile of fat mass) were measured using the Lunar Prodigy dual x-ray emission absorptiometry scanner. We found strong negative associations between MVPA and fat mass that were unaltered after adjustment for total physical activity. We found a strong negative dose-response association between MVPA and obesity. The odds ratio for obesity in adjusted models between top and the bottom quintiles of minutes of MVPA was 0.03 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01-0.13, p-value for trend <0.0001) in boys and 0.36 (95% CI 0.17-0.74, p-value for trend = 0.006) in girls.

Conclusions: We demonstrated a strong graded inverse association between physical activity and obesity that was stronger in boys. Our data suggest that higher intensity physical activity may be more important than total activity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Adjusted Odds Ratios for Obesity by Quintiles of Objectively Measured Minutes of Moderate and Vigorous Activity in 2,622 12-Year-Old Boys from ALSPAC
(A) Model 1 gives the odds ratios from the minimally adjusted model, i.e., obesity (adjusted for age, height, and height squared) regressed on quintiles of MVPA. Model 4 gives the odds ratios from the maximally adjusted model, i.e., obesity (adjusted for age, height, and height squared) regressed on quintiles of MVPA, maternal education, lowest social class, birthweight, gestational age, smoking in pregnancy, obesity of mother, sleep pattern, TV viewing, and pubertal stage. (B) Mean and ranges of quintiles of minutes of moderate and vigorous activity for boys.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Adjusted Odds Ratios for Obesity by Quintiles of Objectively Measured Minutes of Moderate and Vigorous Activity in 2,878 12-Year-Old Girls from ALSPAC
(A) Model 1 gives the odds ratios from the minimally adjusted model, i.e., obesity (adjusted for age, height, and height squared) regressed on quintiles of MVPA. Model 4 gives the odds ratios from the maximally adjusted model, i.e., obesity (adjusted for age, height, and height squared) regressed on quintiles of MVPA, maternal education, lowest social class, birthweight, gestational age, smoking in pregnancy, obesity of mother, sleep pattern, TV viewing, and pubertal stage. (B) Mean and ranges of quintiles of minutes of moderate and vigorous activity for girls
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