FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH SEDENTARY BEHAVIOUR AMONG BASIC SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ADENTA MUNICIPALITY, GREATER ACCRA REGION.

ABSTRACT

Background: Sedentary behaviour is characterised by energy expenditure ≤ 1.5 metabolic equivalents (METs). Common sedentary activities include television viewing, video game playing, computer use, driving automobiles, and reading.

In addition, children also spend time engaging in sedentary hobbies like sitting or lying to read, sitting to chat with friends, drawing, and writing. Sedentary behaviour assessment is important because of its linkages with poor health outcomes like cardiac disease, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.

Objective: This study assessed sedentary behaviour and associated factors among basic school children in the Adenta Municipality.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design with quantitative data collection was utilized in this study. A multistage sampling approach was used to select 385 adolescents from a public and private basic school in Adenta Municipality. Prevalence of school children engaging in sedentary behaviour was estimated using a cut point of ≥ 2h/day of engagement in a sedentary activity in the questionnaire to categorize the outcome. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyse the association between sedentary behaviour and some associated child (age, sex, educational level, type of school), parental (mother’s educational level, father’s occupation, father’s educational level, father’s occupation, parental rules on screen time), and environmental factors (sports facilities at home, sports facilities in school) separately for weekdays and weekends.

Results: The mean age of respondents was 13.2 ± 1.3 years. (Range 11-18 years.). Slightly more than half (52.2 %) were females. Majority were in Junior high school (83.6%). Public school respondents constituted 56.9%. More than two-thirds (72.2%) reported sedentary behaviour

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during weekdays and 84.9% on weekends. After adjusting for these factors, (educational level of child, school type, father’s education) none of the factors explained variance with sedentary behaviour on weekdays. For weekends, the following factors had significant associations with sedentary behaviour in the adjusted model: absence of sports facilities at home, school type and maternal occupation. Children who lacked sports facilities at home were 1.9 times more likely to be sedentary (aOR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.02 – 3.8), children in public schools were significantly less likely to engage in sedentary behaviour compared to those in private schools (aOR = 0.4, 95% CI = 0.2 – 0.9). A child was more likely to be sedentary on weekends, if the mother is a petty trader (aOR = 6.6, 95% CI = 1.3 – 33.1) or employed as a civil servant (aOR = 4.9, 95% CI = 1.01 – 23.9) compared to those children whose mothers were unemployed. The most common sedentary activities children were found to engage in are watching television, sitting reading a book or magazine, using the computer (to browse the internet and studying), and playing computer or video games.

Conclusion: The study shows a high prevalence of children being sedentary in the study area. Screen devices were the common tools utilized in being sedentary. The associations of sedentary behaviour with absence of sports facilities in homes, type of school and maternal occupation should be considered in efficient interventions on SB control.

Recommendations: Parents are to be physically active and encourage their children to do same at home and in the communities to possibly minimize sedentary pursuits. There should be enforcement of rules on screen time by parents in and out of the home for children. There must also be awareness creation on sedentary behaviour through public education and in schools.