Purpose
The aim of the present project is to generate new knowledge regarding infants and early childhood determinants of sedentary behavior and physical activity at age 7 to 8 years. Main exposure variables include rapid weight gain, temperament and motor development in infancy. Further, we will examine how these determinants may interact with sedentary behavior and physical activity in relation to childhood obesity.
In addition we will conduct a validation study examining the validity of maternally reported questionnaire data on physical activity and sedentary behaviour in the MoBa-study.
Project description
Data collection has been conducted as part of a large on-going cohort, the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), run by the Norwegian Institute for Public Health (NIPH). The MoBa is a prospective population-based pregnancy cohort study examining the causes of disease among mothers and children. All women in Norway given birth at maternity units with more than 100 births annually were invited, and 38.5% consented to participate. The participants were recruited during gestational week 18, and mother and child are followed-up until the child is 7 years old with postal questionnaires. The cohort includes 108 000 pregnancies from 1999 to 2008.
In addition to the MoBa, a randomly selected sub-cohort (n=3 500) born between July 2002 and December 2003 will be invited and examined between September 2013 and December 2014. The sub-study is a part of the “Causal Pathways for Asthma” and will provide data on objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time (by accelerometer) and anthropometry.
Maternally questionnaire data on physical activity and sedentary behaviours will be correlated with accelerometer data, to examine the validity of the questionnaire. Also, we will measure the children’s weight/height, waist circumference and sleep habits. The aim is to recruit an independent sample of at least 40 children between 6-8 years old, and their mothers. The validation study will be conducted autumn 20014.