Canadian children's and youth's adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic: A decision tree analysis

Michelle D Guerrero; Leigh M Vanderloo; Ryan E Rhodes; Guy Faulkner; Sarah A Moore; Mark S Tremblay

doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2020.06.005

Canadian children's and youth's adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic: A decision tree analysis

J Sport Health Sci. 2020 Jul;9(4):313-321. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2020.06.005. Epub 2020 Jun 7.

Authors

Michelle D Guerrero¹, Leigh M Vanderloo², Ryan E Rhodes³, Guy Faulkner⁴, Sarah A Moore⁵, Mark S Tremblay⁶

Affiliations

¹ Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada. Electronic address: mguerrero@cheo.on.ca.
² ParticipACTION, Toronto, ON M5S 1M2, Canada; Child Health and Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada.
³ Behavioral Medicine Laboratory, School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, Canada.
⁴ School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.
⁵ Department of Therapeutic Recreation, Faculty of Child, Family, and Community Studies, Douglas College, Coquitlam, BC V3B 7X3, Canada; School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
⁶ Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L1, Canada.

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use decision tree modeling to generate profiles of children and youth who were more or less likely to meet the Canadian 24-h movement guidelines during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) outbreak.

Methods: Data for this study were from a nationally representative sample of 1472 Canadian parents (Mean_age = 45.12, SD = 7.55) of children (5-11 years old) or youth (12-17 years old). Data were collected in April 2020 via an online survey. Survey items assessed demographic, behavioral, social, micro-environmental, and macro-environmental characteristics. Four decision trees of adherence and non-adherence to all movement recommendations combined and each individual movement recommendation (physical activity [PA], screen time, and sleep) were generated.

Results: Results revealed specific combinations of adherence and non-adherence characteristics. Characteristics associated with adherence to the recommendation(s) included high parental perceived capability to restrict screen time, annual household income of ≥ $100,000, increases in children's and youth's outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began, being a boy, having parents younger than 43 years old, and small increases in children's and youth's sleep duration since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Characteristics associated with non-adherence to the recommendation(s) included low parental perceived capability to restrict screen time, youth aged 12-17 years, decreases in children's and youth's outdoor PA/sport since the COVID-19 outbreak began, primary residences located in all provinces except Quebec, low parental perceived capability to support children's and youth's sleep and PA, and annual household income of ≤ $99,999.

Conclusion: Our results show that specific characteristics interact to contribute to (non)adherence to the movement behavior recommendations. Results highlight the importance of targeting parents' perceived capability for the promotion of children's and youth's movement behaviors during challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, paying particular attention to enhancing parental perceived capability to restrict screen time.

Keywords: Decision tree analysis; Parental perceived capability; Physical activity; Screen time; Sleep.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Canada / epidemiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Decision Trees
Exercise*
Female
Guideline Adherence*
Health Behavior
Humans
Male
Pandemics*
Parents / psychology
Perception
Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology*
SARS-CoV-2
Screen Time
Sleep