Pathway linking physical activity, sleep duration, and breakfast consumption with the physical/psychosocial health of schoolchildren

Abstract

The relationship between certain lifestyle habits and schoolchildren’s health has previously been reported on, but the exact pathway of the effects lifestyle habits have on physical/psychosocial health (PPH) has not been investigated nor has the relative influence of different habits on schoolchildren’s health. In this study, schoolchildren were recruited from a primary school in Toyama Prefecture, Japan ( n = 576), and the relevant data were collected in June/July 2017. Path analysis was used to examine the relationships of lifestyle habits and physical fitness with PPH among schoolchildren in grades 1–4 and 5–6. Body weight and total fitness scores were found to be not related to the children’s PPH. The pathway via which lifestyle habits influenced PPH was determined successfully. Among children in grades 1–4, sex ( p < .05), age ( p < .01), and breakfast intake ( p < .05) were related to PPH. Among schoolchildren in grades 5–6, the duration of sleep ( p < .05) was related to PPH. Thus, factors related to schoolchildren’s PPH vary by school grade. The identification of the predictors of the PPH of schoolchildren should inform the design of tailored, grade-specific health promotion interventions in Japanese elementary schools.