Associations of childhood physical activity and screen time with cardiometabolic health in preteens who were born to mothers with previous macrosomic delivery: Findings from the ROLO longitudinal birth cohort study.

BACKGROUND

Macrosomia (birthweight ≥4 kg) may alter the associations of physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) throughout childhood with later cardiometabolic risk.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate associations of PA and ST over a 4-6-year follow-up period with cardiometabolic outcomes in preteens (9-11-year-olds) who were born to mothers with previous macrosomic delivery.

METHODS

This is an analysis of 402 preteens from the ROLO study, who were born to mothers that previously delivered an infant with macrosomia. Parental-reported measures of PA and ST were obtained in early childhood at 5-years of age. Preteen self-reported PA, parental-reported ST, anthropometry, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, blood pressure, heart rate, cardiorespiratory endurance, and blood biomarkers were obtained at 9-11-years. Crude and adjusted linear regression models explored associations and the interaction of birthweight was investigated in all models.

RESULTS

Early childhood PA and ST at the 5-year follow-up were not related to preteen cardiometabolic outcomes. In adjusted models, higher preteen PA was associated with lower sum of skinfolds (B = -3.00, 95% CI -5.98, -0.02, p = 0.048) and higher cardiorespiratory endurance (B = 0.50, 95% CI 0.20, 0.80, p = 0.001) at the same time point. No strong evidence for modification by birthweight was found.

CONCLUSION

Higher preteen PA may have potential benefits for cardiometabolic health, irrespective of birthweight.