Table 7.
Association between sleep duration and physical activity in children aged 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 |
Due to heterogeneity in the measurement of sleep and physical activity, a meta-analysis was not possible
aIncludes 1 longitudinal study [22]
bSleep duration was parent-reported with no psychometric properties reported. Therefore, the quality of evidence was downgraded from “low” to “very low”