Have sedentary lifestyles reached even remote parts of the Global South? Evidence from school-going adolescents’ time use in India

Abstract

Objectives Sedentary lifestyles often develop during adolescence and may be deleterious to physical and mental health. Sedentarism is known to be common in high-income countries; this study examines its prevalence in a remote city in India, including the amount of time school-going adolescents spend being sedentary and the activities that make up this time. Methods We developed a 24-hour time-use survey and collected data with a sample of school-going adolescents ages 12–17 years in a mid-sized South Indian city (n=395). We built measures of daily sedentary minutes and frequency (bouts) of sedentary activities and calculated population-based prevalence of sedentary activi‐ ties across gender and school type. We used survey-weighted distributions and linear regression models to estimate sedentary time after accounting for socio-demographic characteristics. Results On average, adolescents had 7.3 sedentary bouts/day, amounting to 527.7 minutes/ day. Compared to private-school students, those in government schools spent 2 fewer hours (−134.5 minutes;-174.4, −194.6) sedentary, including 82 (−122, −42.0) fewer minutes in classroom and tutoring time and an hour (−57.82; −69.4,46.2) less in vehicle-based commuting. Girls spent 44 minutes less time in class and in tutoring (−75.88, −12.11)and more time watching television than boys. Adolescents spent comparable time doing homework and reading for leisure. Conclusion Sedentary lifestyles are reaching children even in remote communities in India. A large component of this time is dedicated to learning. Private school students spent the most time sedentary, making them an especially vulnerable group for cardiometa‐ bolic disease, in spite of socioeconomic advantages.