Parental-perceived home and neighborhood environmental correlates of accelerometer-measured physical activity among school-going children in Uganda

Bernadette Nakabazzi; Lucy-Joy M Wachira; Adewale L Oyeyemi; Ronald Ssenyonga; Vincent O Onywera

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0000089

Parental-perceived home and neighborhood environmental correlates of accelerometer-measured physical activity among school-going children in Uganda

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2021 Dec 8;1(12):e0000089. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000089. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Bernadette Nakabazzi¹, Lucy-Joy M Wachira¹, Adewale L Oyeyemi², Ronald Ssenyonga³, Vincent O Onywera¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Education, Exercise and Sports Science, School of Public Health and Applied Human Sciences, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
² Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medical Sciences, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Abstract

The benefits of physical activity (PA) on children's health and well-being are well established. However, many children do not meet the PA recommendations, increasing their risk of being overweight, obese, and non-communicable diseases. Environmental characteristics of homes and neighborhoods may constrain a child's ability to engage in PA, but evidence is needed to inform country-specific interventions in understudied low-income countries. This study assessed the associations between parental-perceived home and neighbourhood, built environment characteristics, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among children in Kampala city, Uganda. In this cross-sectional study, data were obtained from 256 children (55.5% girls) aged between 10 and 12 years and their parents. Children's MVPA was measured using waist-worn ActiGraph accelerometers. The environments were assessed using a valid self-reported parent survey. Linear regression models with standard errors (clusters) were used to analyze the relationship between environmental variables and children's MVPA. Sex-specific relationships were assessed using sex-stratified models. Play equipment at home (β = -2.37, p <0.001; unexpected direction), residential density (β = 2.70, p<0.05), and crime safety (β = -5.29, p <0.05; unexpected direction) were associated with children's MVPA. The sex-specific analyses revealed more inconsistent patterns of results with a higher perception of land use mix associated with less MVPA in girls (irrespective of school type attended), and higher perceptions of sidewalk infrastructure (β = -12.01, p <0.05) and walking and cycling infrastructure (β = -14.72, p <0.05) associated with less MVPA in girls attending public schools only. A better perception of crime safety was associated with less MVPA among boys and girls attending private schools (β = -3.80, p <0.05). Few environmental characteristics were related to children's MVPA in Uganda, and findings were largely inconsistent, especially among girls. Future studies are needed to understand the ecological determinants of health-related PA behaviors among children in Uganda.

Copyright: © 2021 Nakabazzi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the African Development Bank-Higher Education in science and Technology (AfDB-HEST) and Makerere University Kampala, Uganda. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.