Association between sedentary behavior time and waist-to-height ratio in preschool children

Objectives To explore the association between sedentary behavior time (SB), and waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR) in preschool children. Methods This study included 646 preschool children (4‐ to 6‐years old). WHtR was calculated as the ratio of waist/height with a cutoff of 0.5 used to define risk of abdominal obesity. Sedentary behavior was measured during 7 consecutive days by accelerometer. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between SB and WHtR. Results The prevalence of central obesity (WHtR) was 52.4 and 39.2% for girls and boys, respectively. Boys classified as being at risk for central obesity were more likely to spend more time in SB (OR: 1.6; CI: 1.1–2.5; P ≤ 0.05), adjusted by age (P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions Our data suggested that boys classified as having higher SB were more likely to having more central obesity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:746–748, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.