Sex-stratified compositional analysis of 24-h movement behaviors and their relationship with selective attention and cognitive flexibility in socioeconomically vulnerable children

Introduction

The 24-h movement behavior framework, which integrates physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior, and sleep, acknowledges the co-dependent nature of time-use behaviors within a finite day. While these behaviors have been linked to cognitive performance in children, few studies have applied compositional data analysis (CoDA), and none have examined potential sex differences.

Objective

To explore sex-specific associations between 24-h movement behavior compositions and selective attention and cognitive flexibility in a sample of socioeconomically vulnerable Chilean children using CoDA.

Methods

Baseline data from 161 children (8–10 years old) participating in the Active-Start trial were analyzed. Movement behaviors were assessed via 9-day wrist-worn accelerometers. Selective attention was assessed using the d2 Test of Attention, and cognitive flexibility was measured with the Design Fluency Test.

Results

Boys accumulated more moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA; 83.5 [57.6–109.7] min) than girls (67.7 [52.3–78.1] min), whereas girls engaged in more light PA (219.9 ± 37.7 min) than boys (205.7 ± 38.1 min; P < 0.05). Among boys, reallocating daily time to MVPA at the expense of other behaviors was associated with increased processing speed (unstandardized-beta [B] = 53.501, 95 %confidence-interval [CI] 14.393; 92.609, P = 0.008) and concentration (B = 25.099, 95 %CI 4.816; 45.382, P = 0.016), as well as cognitive flexibility (B = 5.913, 95 %CI 1.995; 9.832, P = 0.004). No significant associations were observed in girls (P > 0.05). A non-significant association was observed linking sedentary behavior with cognitive performance in both sexes.

Conclusion

These findings highlight potential sex-specific benefits of MVPA and support the use of CoDA in understanding how daily time use relates to cognitive performance in children.