Background: The purpose was to determine the proportion of 9- to 11-year-old children meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines (24-HMG) in a low-income town from Chile.
Methods: Physical activity, sedentary behavior (recreational screen), and sleep times were measured with both questionnaire and accelerometer in 258 children from third to sixth grade. Meeting the 24-HMG was defined as having ≥60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity, ≤2 hour day of screen time, and 9 to 11 hours of sleep per night. Compliance rates were calculated as self-reported 24-HMG, with all estimations based on questionnaires, and mixed 24-HMG, in which physical activity and sleep were determined with an accelerometer and sedentary behavior was determined with a questionnaire.
Results: About 198 children (10.1 [0.8] y, range 9-11 y) provided valid data for estimating self-reported 24-HMG, and 141 for mixed 24-HMG. Only 3.2% and 0.7% met the 24-HMG when using the self-reported and mixed methods, respectively. When assessing individual recommendations, 13.1% and 3.7% of the sample were physically active based on the self-report and accelerometer, respectively. About a quarter met the sedentary behavior recommendations, while around 50% met the sleep recommendations with both self-reported and mixed methods.
Conclusions: An extremely low percentage of the participants met the 24-HMG. Multicomponent initiatives must be implemented to promote healthy movement behaviors in Chilean children.
Keywords: health behavior; motor activity; screen time; sedentary behavior; sleep.