Occurrence and duration of various operational definitions of sedentary bouts and cross-sectional associations with cardiometabolic health indicators: The ENERGY-project

Objective: This study examined the occurrence and duration of sedentary bouts and explored the cross-sectional association with health indicators in children applying various operational definitions of sedentary bouts. Methods: Accelerometer data of 647 children (10-13 years old) were collected in five European countries. We analyzed sedentary time (<. 100. cpm) accumulated in bouts of at least 5, 10, 20 or 30. min based on four operational definitions, allowing 0, 30 or 60. s >. 100. cpm within bouts. Health indicators included anthropometrics (i.e. waist circumference and body mass index (BMI)) and in a subsample from two European countries (n. =. 112) fasting capillary blood levels of glucose, C-peptide, high-density- and low-density cholesterol, and triglycerides. Data collection took place from March to July 2010. Associations were adjusted for age, gender, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, total wear time and country. Results: Occurrence of sedentary bouts varied largely between the various definitions. Children spent most of their sedentary time in bouts of >. 5. min while bouts of >. 20. min were rare. Linear regression analysis revealed few significant associations of sedentary time accumulated in bouts of >. 5-30. min with health indicators. Moreover, we found that more associations became significant when allowing no tolerance time within sedentary bouts. Conclusion: Despite a few significant associations, we found no convincing evidence for an association between sedentary time accumulated in bouts and health indicators in 10-13 year old children.