Latent profiles of 24-h movement behaviors and bone health at one-year follow-up in Chinese preschool children
- 1School of Education, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, China
Abstract
Background: Physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep together occupy a fixed 24-h day, yet their relation to bone health in early childhood has largely been examined one behavior at a time, or through adherence to separate guideline thresholds. Person-centred approaches that characterise the whole-day composition have not been applied to bone health in preschool children.
Methods: A total of 109 children (mean age 4.33 years; 44.0% girls) from three kindergartens in Changsha, China, were followed for 1 year. Sedentary behavior, light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were measured by hip-worn accelerometry over seven consecutive days, and sleep was reported daily by parents and recorded by class teachers including the weekend days. The four behaviors were closed to 1,440 min/day, expressed as isometric log-ratio coordinates, and summarised by latent profile analysis. Bone health was indexed by the tibial speed of sound (SOS) from quantitative ultrasound, expressed as a z-score for age, sex and ethnicity. Covariates were related to profile membership by the bias-adjusted three-step approach, and profiles to the SOS z-score by the Bolck–Croon–Hagenaars approach in baseline score and 1-year follow-up score models.
Results: Three profiles were identified: Sedentary (n = 31), Low-active, long-sleeping (n = 7) and Active (n = 71). Older children were more likely to belong to the Active profile than to the Sedentary profile (OR 2.164 per year, 95% CI 1.012 to 4.630), whereas sex, socioeconomic status score and body mass index z-score were not associated with profile membership. At baseline the SOS z-score did not differ across profiles. At 1-year follow-up, children in the Active profile scored lower than those in the Sedentary profile (adjusted difference −0.462, 95% CI −0.774 to −0.150, p = 0.004, Holm-adjusted p = 0.016), whereas the Low-active, long-sleeping profile did not differ (−0.256, 95% CI −0.844 to 0.332).
Conclusion: An association between 24-h movement profile membership and bone health was present at 1-year follow-up but not at baseline. The whole-day movement composition therefore merits consideration in bone health research and promotion in the preschool years.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026latent,
title = {{Latent profiles of 24-h movement behaviors and bone health at one-year follow-up in Chinese preschool children}},
author = {Yuhan Li and Sen Cao},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1964754},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1964754},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Latent profiles of 24-h movement behaviors and bone health at one-year follow-up in Chinese preschool children
AU - Yuhan Li
AU - Sen Cao
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1964754
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1964754
AB - Background: Physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep together occupy a fixed 24-h day, yet their relation to bone health in early childhood has largely been examined one behavior at a time, or through adherence to separate guideline thresholds. Person-centred approaches that characterise the whole-day composition have not been applied to bone health in preschool children. Methods: A total of 109 children (mean age 4.33 years; 44.0% girls) from three kindergartens in Changsha, China, were followed for 1 year. Sedentary behavior, light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were measured by hip-worn accelerometry over seven consecutive days, and sleep was reported daily by parents and recorded by class teachers including the weekend days. The four behaviors were closed to 1,440 min/day, expressed as isometric log-ratio coordinates, and summarised by latent profile analysis. Bone health was indexed by the tibial speed of sound (SOS) from quantitative ultrasound, expressed as a z-score for age, sex and ethnicity. Covariates were related to profile membership by the bias-adjusted three-step approach, and profiles to the SOS z-score by the Bolck–Croon–Hagenaars approach in baseline score and 1-year follow-up score models. Results: Three profiles were identified: Sedentary (n = 31), Low-active, long-sleeping (n = 7) and Active (n = 71). Older children were more likely to belong to the Active profile than to the Sedentary profile (OR 2.164 per year, 95% CI 1.012 to 4.630), whereas sex, socioeconomic status score and body mass index z-score were not associated with profile membership. At baseline the SOS z-score did not differ across profiles. At 1-year follow-up, children in the Active profile scored lower than those in the Sedentary profile (adjusted difference −0.462, 95% CI −0.774 to −0.150, p = 0.004, Holm-adjusted p = 0.016), whereas the Low-active, long-sleeping profile did not differ (−0.256, 95% CI −0.844 to 0.332). Conclusion: An association between 24-h movement profile membership and bone health was present at 1-year follow-up but not at baseline. The whole-day movement composition therefore merits consideration in bone health research and promotion in the preschool years.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -