Parental perception and guideline awareness of children's lifestyle behaviours at ages 5 to 14 in Singapore.
10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.2021134
- Author:
Phaik Ling QUAH
1
;
Benny Kai Guo LOO
;
Nurul Syaza RAZALI
;
Nurul Sakinah RAZALI
;
Chin Chye TEO
;
Kok Hian TAN
Author Information
1. Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Adolescent;
Child;
Child, Preschool;
Exercise;
Female;
Humans;
Male;
Parents;
Perception;
Sedentary Behavior;
Singapore
- From:Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore
2021;50(9):695-702
- CountrySingapore
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
INTRODUCTION:There are limited data on the descriptive lifestyle behaviour of school-age children in Singapore.
METHODS:A total of 100 parents of children ages 5 to 14 participated in a parents' proxy-reported survey. Frequency of moderate physical activity (PA) and vigorous PA was assessed, while t-tests or chi-square test was used to examine differences between weekdays and weekends for sleep, screen viewing time (SVT) and sedentary behaviour (SB).
RESULTS:Of the 100 children (68% of Chinese ethnicity, 59% boys, mean age 9.1±2.9 years), 31% were overweight or obese, with body mass index z-score of >1. For moderate and vigorous PA participation in a typical week, 32.0% and 43.0%, respectively, did not participate, while median (interquartile range) days of participation were 3 (2-3) days/week and 2 (1-3) days/week for a duration of 60 (interquartile range 30-120) minutes/session. When comparing weekends with weekdays, the means (standard deviation) of both SVT and sleep duration were higher on weekends (SVT: 4.1 [2.9] versus 3.3 [3.1] hours/day,
CONCLUSION:Lifestyle behaviours were suboptimal in Singapore children compared with existing overseas guidelines, indicating a need for an integrated guideline with greater dissemination.
