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Correlates of Physical Activity in Children from Families Speaking Non-official Languages at Home: a Multi-site Canadian Study

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Abstract

Background

Children from families speaking a non-official language at home may be particularly at risk for low physical activity (PA), underscoring a need to investigate correlates of PA in this subpopulation.

Methods

We recruited 478 children in 37 schools stratified by area-level socioeconomic status (SES) and type of urbanization within three regions of Canada. Steps/day were measured using SC-StepRx pedometers. We assessed potential social-ecological correlates with child and parent surveys. We used gender-stratified linear mixed models to examine the correlates of steps/day.

Results

Outdoor time was the strongest correlate of boys’ and girls’ PA. Lower area-level SES was associated with less PA among boys, but outdoor time attenuated this difference. The strength of association between outdoor time and PA decreased with age in boys and increased with age in girls.

Discussion

Outdoor time was the most consistent correlate of PA. Future interventions should promote outdoor time and address socioeconomic disparities.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because participants have not consented to this, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Negin Riazi and Sébastien Blanchette were the site coordinators for Vancouver and Trois-Rivières respectively. The authors wish to thank Kevin Belanger for his help in study management and Sheniz Eryuzlu, Megan Forse, Holly Livock, Idriss Sassi, Kelly Wunderlich, Yingying Zhao, and Veronica Zuccala for their assistance with data collection and data treatment. The authors also thank Joel Barnes for computing the multiply-imputed datasets and Juan Xia He, Michelle Chaput, and Kristian Larsen for their help in obtaining geographical information system (GIS) data. Guy Faulkner holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Public Health Agency of Canada (CIHR- PHAC) Chair in Applied Public Health. The authors wish to thank Dr. Jennifer Copeland for her contribution as RN’s graduate committee member.

Funding

The ATIM study was sponsored by a grant-in-aid from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (grant number: G-15-0009021) and coordinated by Dr. Geneviève Leduc.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Ransimala Nayakarathna, Nimesh Patel, Cheryl Currie & Richard Larouche

  2. School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Guy Faulkner & Negin Riazi

  3. Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group, CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Mark S. Tremblay

  4. Département des Sciences de l’Activité Physique, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada

    François Trudeau

Authors
  1. Ransimala Nayakarathna
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  2. Nimesh Patel
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  3. Cheryl Currie
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  4. Guy Faulkner
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  5. Negin Riazi
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  6. Mark S. Tremblay
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  7. François Trudeau
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  8. Richard Larouche
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Contributions

Conceptualization: R.N., R.L., and N.P.; data curation: R.L.; formal analysis: R.N.; funding acquisition: M.T., R.L., G.F., and F.T.; investigation: R.L., M.T., G.F., and F.T.; methodology: R.L., R.N., M.T., G.F., and F.T., and N.P.; project administration: R.L., and N.R.; supervision: R.L., N.P., and C.C.; visualization: R.N.; writing—original draft: R.N.; writing—review and editing: R.L., N.P., C.C., N.R., M.T., G.F., and F.T.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Larouche.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The primary study was approved by relevant research ethic boards [Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (15/103X), University of British Columbia (H15-02710), and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (CER-15-218-07.05)], and school boards at each site. Ethics approval for this secondary analysis was obtained from the University of Lethbridge Human Participant Research Committee (2020-050).

Consent to Participate

Written informed consent was obtained from the parents and written assent was obtained from the children.

Conflict of interest

RL receives royalties from Elsevier for his book, which is not cited in the present manuscript. Other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to declare.

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Nayakarathna, R., Patel, N., Currie, C. et al. Correlates of Physical Activity in Children from Families Speaking Non-official Languages at Home: a Multi-site Canadian Study. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 11, 815–825 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01563-z

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