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. 2025 Jun 9;11(1):71.
doi: 10.1186/s40798-025-00865-2.

Evaluation of Physical Activity, Sedentary Patterns, and Lifestyle Behavior in Spanish Preschool Children from the CORALS Cohort

Jose Manuel Jurado-Castro  1   2   3 , Belén Pastor-Villaescusa  2   4   5 , Cristina Castro-Collado  2 , Mercedes Gil-Campos  6   7 , Rosaura Leis  1   8   9 , Nancy Babio  1   10   11 , Luis A Moreno  1   12   13 , Santiago Navas-Carretero  1   14   15 , Olga Portolés  1   16 , Ana Moreira Echeverría  1   17 , Maria Jose De La Torre-Aguilar  2 , Rosaura Picáns-Leis  18 , Jordi Salas-Salvadó  1   10   11 , Pilar de Miguel-Etayo  1   12   13 , Katherine Flores-Rojas  2 , Rocío Vázquez-Cobela  1   8   9 , Júlia Valero Sales  10   11 , Maria L Miguel-Berges  1   12   13 , Isabel Izquierdo-López  8   9 , Carlos Gómez-Martínez  1   10   11 , Diana Paola Córdoba-Rodríguez  19 , Gisela Mimbrero  10   11 , Francisco Jesus Llorente-Cantarero  1   2   20 ; CORAL Study investigators
Collaborators, Affiliations

Evaluation of Physical Activity, Sedentary Patterns, and Lifestyle Behavior in Spanish Preschool Children from the CORALS Cohort

Jose Manuel Jurado-Castro et al. Sports Med Open. .

Abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) and sedentary lifestyle are recognized as modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Healthy habits in early childhood tend to persist throughout life. This study aims to evaluate the physical activity and sedentary behavior patterns in a cohort of Spanish preschool children using device-based measures, and compare these patterns by sex. This study analyzed a sample of 643 preschoolers aged 3-6 years with valid accelerometry data from the Childhood Obesity Risk Assessment Longitudinal Study (CORALS) cohort (NCT06317883; May 30, 2024).

Results: 67% of preschoolers met the international PA recommendations, with 72.1 min of moderate-vigorous PA (MVPA) per day. Boys exhibited higher levels of MVPA than girls, and MVPA increased with age in both groups. Sedentary time was higher on weekends, and boys spent more time watching TV than girls. Involvement in extracurricular sports was reported by 67.5% of children, with boys showing a greater engagement in outdoor activities.

Conclusions: A relevant proportion of Spanish preschool children meet the international PA recommendations, with variations based on sex, age, and day of the week, reflecting global trends at this stage of life. Future interventions should address sex-specific preferences and age-related changes to enhance the effectiveness of promoting active lifestyles in this population.

Keywords: 24-h movement; Child; Lifestyle; Physical activity; Sedentary behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate: The Ethics Committee of each recruitment center approved the study protocol (references: 051/2019, 4155/2019, 2019/18, 9/19, 09/2019, 19/27, and 2019/131), which was conducted following the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki, and informed consent was obtained from their parents or legal representative tutors. Consent for Publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sample characteristics for each measure and variable, including sex-specific breakdown
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Spearman's correlations between age, sedentary time and time spent at different PA intensities, stratified by sex. (A Sedentary; B Light PA; C MVPA). MVPA: moderate-vigorous physical activity; PA: physical activity. Legend: Each point represents an individual, with girls indicated by green triangles and boys by orange diamonds; the shaded areas illustrate trends for each group; the large circles represent confidence ellipses, showing the distribution and dispersion of the data within each category; the rho and p values on each graph indicate the correlation and statistical significance within each group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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