Publication date: Oct 2020
What is already known about this subject:
- Getting enough physical activity is linked with better health across life.
- Being physically active across childhood and adolescence may be linked with better health in adulthood, but current evidence tends to be based on population effects, which misses individuals who change activity over time.
- This study aimed to identify groups of people with similar patterns of physical activity from 8 to 17 years of age, and whether the different patterns related to differences in physical and mental health at 20 and 22 years of age.
What this study adds
- Parent report on how active their Gen2 children were relative to their peers was used to created physical activities trajectories.
- At 20 and 22 years of age Gen2 participants completed questionnaires, had clinical measurements and had blood samples taken. Three trajectories of physical activity were identified - low (11%), mid (67%), and high (22%). Participants who were more active across childhood and adolescence had better cardiometabolic and mental health in young adulthood.
- Strategies are needed to help less active children increase physical activity to improve their health in later life.