Body Composition Characteristics Of Children Aged 3?6 Years And Its Correlation With Physical Activity And Sleep

Objective: The body composition of children and adolescents is in a state of constant change.However,few studies have focused on the body composition of children aged 3 to 6 years.At the same time,foreign countries have carried out a lot of research on environmental factors and physical composition of children and adolescents,among which physical activity,sleep,diet and other factors are very important.Therefore,it is of great significance to clarify the development status of children's body composition,and to explore its relationship with physical activity and sleep,in order to further study the longitudinal development of children's body composition in the future,and to put forward guidance and suggestions for children's physical activity patterns,sleep and diet.Method: In this study,896 children aged 3 to 6 years in three kindergartens in Beijing were recruited for body composition test.The age differences were analyzed by one-way ANOVA and the gender differences were analyzed by independent sample t-test.In one of the kindergartens,73 children in middle and large classes were recruited to wear ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer to complete a week's physical activity test and children's sleep habits questionnaire.The correlation between body composition,physical activity and sleep was analyzed by canonical correlation analysis,and the correlation between body composition and dietary habits was analyzed by Speerman grade correlation analysis.Results: There are obvious age and gender differences in body composition development of children aged 3 to 6 years.With the increase of age,the body water,protein,fat-free weight,skeletal muscle,basic metabolic rate,inorganic salt,muscle and bone minerals of boys and girls increased(P < 0.01),and boys in all age groups were higher than girls.BMI,body fat rate and body fat of boys and girls decreasedfirst and then increased with age.According to the current data analysis,the age of fat reunion in boys is before 5.0 years old,and that in girls is about 4.0 years old.There are obvious gender differences in physical activity level of children aged3-6 years,but the sleeping condition is generally consistent.Boys had better physical activity than girls(P < 0.05);there was no significant difference in sleep quality and time between boys and girls(P > 0.05).There was a positive correlation between body composition and physical activity and sleep in children aged 3-6 years(r 0.722).Among them,high intensity physical activity has stronger correlation with body composition than other intensities;there is a positive correlation between body composition and sleep time,and a negative correlation between body composition and sleep quality score.There was a moderate positive correlation between dietary intake and body composition,while there was a negative correlation between partial diet and body composition.Conclusion: At present,there is a lack of large-scale cross-sectional investigation of children's body composition.It advocates that competent kindergartens can incorporate body composition testing into routine physical fitness testing.The results of long-term follow-up physical composition testing can provide reference for the formulation of health care measures such as nutritional diet,esophageal management and physical exercise for children.Parents and kindergartens should pay attention to guiding children to develop good living habits and arrange appropriate physical activities,especially the daily activity of girls.At the same time,ensuring adequate sleep time and better sleep quality,maintaining reasonable dietary intake and correcting bad dietary habits,such as partial diet,can promote the growth and development of body composition of children aged 3-6 years.