Childhood Physical Activity and Body Composition

Applying Global Knowledge to the South Asian Scenario

A two-day workshop organised by Sneha-India and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) in Calicut, Kerala, India, 6^th-7^th November 2008

Guidelines for abstract submission.

We invite abstracts detailing original research carried out in the field of childhood physical activity and body composition for POSTER presentation ONLY. The abstract submission deadline is 30 September 2008.

All accepted abstracts will be published in a workshop summary which will be made available to all delegates and DOHaD / SNEHA members.

Abstract Formatting: Please include the names of all the authors and their affiliations below the title. The presenting author’s name should be underlined.

The abstract must be typed single spaced, with Times New Roman, 12 pt font using MS Word (Office 97-2003).

All abstracts should be submitted with the following structure:

Objective/ Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

The contents of the abstracts must be no more than 300 words.

Figures and/ or Tables can be included in the text, but the abstract length should not exceed one side of an A4 sheet.

Poster Format

Poster orientation should be portrait and size should be no larger than A0 (1.19m x 0.84m). 

Please send the abstract as an e-mail attachment in the form of a Word document (with file extension .doc) to: kittyveni@hotmail.com

Sample Abstract
DOES BODY COMPOSITION AT BIRTH INFLUENCE CHILDHOOD PHYSICAL ACTIVITY?  DATA FROM A BIRTH COHORT IN MYSORE, SOUTH INDIA

Kehoe S.H.*, Krishnaveni G.V**, Veena S.R.**., Fall C.H.D.*  *MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK **Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysore, India OBJECTIVE To determine whether an association exists between body composition at birth and objectively measured physical activity during childhood.

METHOD The children in this prospective observational cohort study (n=345) were born to women living in Mysore in 1997 and 1998. Neonatal anthropometric measures were recorded within 48 hours of delivery (weight, MUAC, chest, abdomen and head circumference, crown-heel, crown-buttock and leg length, tricep and subscapular skin-folds). At age 7-8 years children wore accelerometers to collect physical activity data. Pilot study results were used to ascertain appropriate frequencies of accelerometer counts for time spent participating in sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous activity. Anthropometric and bio-impedance data were also collected from the children within 6 months of wearing accelerometers. The outcomes of interest were mean number of accelerometry counts per day, absolute amount and proportion of time spent: sedentary; in ‘light’ activity; in moderate activity; in vigorous activity.

RESULTS Mean (SD) number of days of accelerometry recorded was 7.06 (1.09). Boys spent more time vigorously active than girls. Regression analysis (adjusted for age and sex) showed no significant associations between any of the neonatal anthropometric measures and the outcome activity variables. Current body fat percentage and skin-fold thicknesses were negatively associated with proportion of time spent vigorously active.

CONCLUSIONS In this population, good quality data show no association between body size or composition at birth and level of physical activity in childhood. Children with a greater body fat percentage and larger skin-fold thicknesses spend less time vigorously active.