24-h actigraphic monitoring of motor activity, sleeping and eating behaviors in underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese children

Purpose: Within a chronobiological perspective, the present study aimed to describe 24 h of sleep–wake cycle, motor activity, and food intake patterns in different body mass index (BMI) categories of children through 7 days of actigraphic recording. Methods: Height and weight were objectively measured for BMI calculation in a sample of 115 Italian primary schoolchildren (10.21 ± 0.48 years, 62.61 % females). According to BMI values, 2.60 % were underweight, 61.70 % were of normal weight, 29.60 % were overweight and 6.10 % were obese. Participants wore a wrist actigraph continuously for 7 days to record motor activity and describe sleep–wake patterns. In addition, participants were requested to push the event-marker button of the actigraph each time they consumed food to describe their circadian eating patterns. Results: BMI group differences were found for sleep quantity (i.e. midpoint of sleep and amplitude), while sleep quality, 24-h motor activity and food intake patterns were similar between groups. Regression analyses showed that BMI was negatively predicted by sleep duration on schooldays. BMI was also predicted by motor activity and by food intake frequencies recorded at particular times of day during schooldays and at the weekend. Conclusions: The circadian perspective seems to provide promising insight into childhood obesity, but this aspect needs to be further explored.