Outdoor Time is Not Associated with Metabolically Healthy Overweight and Obesity Phenotype in Canadian Children Aged 6-14 Years

A large proportion of children living with obesity have favorable cardiometabolic profiles despite their adiposity levels, who are referred to as metabolically healthy overweight or obese (MHO). However, the contribution of active outdoor time to the MHO phenotype is unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between outdoor time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with the MHO phenotype. A cross-sectional analysis of overweight/obese children aged 6-14 ( = 386) from the Canadian Health Measures Survey was performed. Outdoor time was self-reported using five questions in relation to the school schedule to produce a computed score ranging from 0-25. MVPA was measured using accelerometers. The MHO phenotype was defined based on the absence of cardiometabolic risk factors: triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and glucose (MHO: 0 cardiometabolic risk factors). The proportion of children living with obesity with the MHO phenotype was 58.5%. No significant differences were observed between MHO and -MHO according to outdoor time or MVPA ( > 0.05). Logistic regressions indicated that outdoor time was not significantly associated with the MHO phenotype (OR: 0.99, 95% CI = 0.92-1.06; = 0.694), while MVPA was significantly associated with the MHO phenotype (OR: 1.41, 95% CI = 1.01-1.98; = 0.047) after adjusting for confounders. We conclude that outdoor time is not associated with the MHO phenotype, even though Canadian children living with obesity are more likely to be MHO with greater amounts of MVPA, regardless of whether these activities are completed outdoors or not.