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Table 7 Association between sleep duration and physical activity in children aged 0–4 years

From: Systematic review of the relationships between sleep duration and health indicators in the early years (0–4 years)

No of studies

Design

Quality Assessment

No of participants

Absolute effect

Quality

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other

Mean age ranged between 20 months and 4.5 years. Data were collected cross-sectionally and up to 4 years. Sleep duration was assessed by parent report. Physical activity was assessed using accelerometers, time-use diaries or questionnaires.

1

Longitudinal studya

Serious risk of biasb

No serious inconsistency

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

None

2984

Sleep duration at 4 years of age was not associated with physical activity at 6 years of age (β = −0.02, 95% CI −0.09-0.03) [22].

VERY LOW

3

Cross-sectional studyc

No serious risk of bias

No serious inconsistency

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

None

2272

Longer nighttime sleep duration was associated with more physical activity (MVPA min/day: r = 0.19, p = 0.012; activity counts: r = 0.21, p = 0.006). In multivariable models, nighttime sleep duration was positively associated with physical activity (β = 0.332, p = 0.017) [30].

Sleep duration was not associated with physical activity in either boys (p = 0.89) or girls (p = 0.41) [31].

Total daily sleep duration was positively associated with physical activity in boys only (OR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.02–1.07) [81].

LOW

  1. Due to heterogeneity in the measurement of sleep and physical activity, a meta-analysis was not possible
  2. aIncludes 1 longitudinal study [22]
  3. bSleep duration was parent-reported with no psychometric properties reported. Therefore, the quality of evidence was downgraded from “low” to “very low”
  4. cIncludes 3 cross-sectional studies [30, 31, 81]