Associations between movement behaviours and obesity markers among preschoolers compliant and non-compliant with sleep duration: A latent profile analysis

This study identifies physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) clusters in preschoolers compliant (C) or non-compliant (NC) with sleep recommendations; and associates these clusters with obesity markers. PA and SB were objectively assessed (Actigraph WGT3-X) in 272 preschoolers (4.4 ± 0.7 years old). Sleep duration was parent-reported, and preschoolers were clas-sified as C (3–4 years old: 600–780 min/day; 5 years old: 540–660 min/day) or NC with sleep recom-mendations. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were assessed according to international protocols. Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light physical activity (LPA) were categorized as low/high (<60 min/>60 min/day or <180 min/180 min/day, respectively). SB was defined according to mean values between clusters. Latent profile analysis was performed. Associations between the observed clusters and obesity markers were determined using linear regression (RStudio; 1.3.1073). Four cluster solutions for C and NC preschoolers were identified. A negative association between C/Low MVPA cluster and BMI, and a positive association between NC/Low MVPA and BMI (β = −0.8, 95%CI = −1.6; −0.1, and β = 0.9, 95%CI = 0.1;1.7, respectively) were observed. No association was seen for SB clusters. Adequate sleep duration may have a pro-tective role for preschoolers’ BMI, even if the children do not comply with MVPA recommendations.