What is the role of adherence to 24-Hour Movement Guidelines in relation to physical fitness components among adolescents?

BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity, excessive sedentary time and lack of sleep time have been independently associated with lower health-related physical fitness. However, little is known about the combined association between 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (i.e., physical activity, recreational screen time and sleep duration) and components of physical fitness.

OBJECTIVE: The main aim was to examine the likelihood of having high/very high levels on different components of physical fitness based on meeting with 24-Hour Movement Guidelines.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 1276 Spanish youths (13.07±0.86; 55.88% boys), aged 11 to 16 years, completed self-reported questionnaires on physical activity, recreational screen time and sleep duration. Physical fitness components were assessed by 20-m shuttle-run test, standing long jump test, handgrip strength test and 4 × 10-m shuttle-run test. Meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was defined as: 9 to 11 h/day (children aged 5 to 13) or 8 to 10 h/day (adolescents aged 14 to 17) of sleep, ≤2 h/day of recreational screen time and at least 60 min/day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The probability of having a high/very high score for each physical fitness components (i.e., ≥60th centile according to the normative cut-off points for European adolescents) in relation to adherence to 24-Hour Movement Guidelines was analysed using a series of binary logistic regressions.

RESULTS: Participants who met the three 24-Hour Movement Guidelines were more likely to have high/very high for cardiorespiratory fitness (OR=3.31; 95% 95% CI]: 1.79, 6.14; p<0.001), standing long jump (OR = 1.91; 95% CI: 1.06, 3.45; p=0.031), muscular fitness (OR = 2.05; 95% CI: 1.09, 3.86; p=0.048) and physical fitness (OR=1.99; 95% CI: 1.08, 3.66; p=0.012), but not for handgrip strength (OR=1.15; 95% CI: 0.64, 2.01; p=0.636) and speed/agility (OR=1.65; 95% CI: 0.92, 2.96; p=0.093), compared to those who did not meet all three recommendations.

CONCLUSION: Since meeting the three 24-Hour Movement Guidelines increased the likelihood of having higher levels in most physical fitness components, it seems necessary to promote these movement behaviours early in life, as they could serve as a gateway for improving health-related fitness in future generations.