The Metabolic Effects of Breaks in Sedentary Time

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Status: Completed

Conditions: Lipids; Insulin; Feasibility; Glucose; Eating

Treatments: Other: Sedentary With Breaks and Physical Activity; Other: Sedentary; Other: Sedentary With Breaks

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01398059

11/01E

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether acute bouts of sedentary behaviour (with or without breaks and/or structured physical activity) result in measurable changes in metabolic health in children and youth.

Full description

North American children spend the majority of their waking hours engaging in sedentary behavior (e.g. sitting). Research in adults and animal models suggests that even short bouts of uninterrupted siting may result in acute changes increases in cardiometabolic risk, although to date no studies have investigated this relationship in children and youth. The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of a protocol which will expose participants aged 10-14 years to a full day of uninterrupted sitting, and to determine the impact of this protocol on markers of cardiometabolic risk (insulin, glucose, triglyceride, HDL-C and LDL-C) as well as subsequent food intake and physical activity. The impact of uninterrupted sitting will be compared to the impact of interrupted sitting, with and without the inclusion of moderate physical activity.

Enrollment: 19 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 14 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 10-14
• Normal weight or obese

Exclusion criteria

• Overweight
• Overt diabetes or heart disease (or taking medications to treat this conditions)
• Being unambulatory or otherwise unable to perform the study protocol

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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19 participants in 3 patient groups

Sedentary

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition, participants will engage in 8 hours of uninterrupted sedentary behaviour.

Treatment:

Other: Sedentary

Sedentary With Breaks

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition participants will engage in 8 hours of sitting, although the sitting will be interrupted every 20 minutes. During these interruptions participants will spend 2 minutes walking at an intensity equivalent to 30% of VO2peak.

Treatment:

Other: Sedentary With Breaks

Sedentary With Breaks and Physical Activity

Experimental group

Description:

In this condition participants will engage in 8 hours of sitting, although the sitting will be interrupted every 20 minutes. During these interruptions participants will spend 2 minutes walking at an intensity equivalent to 30% of VO2peak. Participants will also engage in 20 minutes of structured physical activity at an intensity of 60% of VO2peak in both the morning and afternoon.

Treatment:

Other: Sedentary With Breaks and Physical Activity