A latent profile analysis of sedentary and physical activity patterns

Aim: The aim of the current study was to examine the physical activity and sedentary behavioral patterns of children and adolescents using the model-based latent profile analysis (LPA) approach. Subject and methods: A sample of 847 school children aged 10 to 16 years from 28 Singapore schools took part in the study. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were assessed using a 7-day physical activity recall questionnaire. Results: The findings of the present study showed that there were at least five groups of students with unique sedentary and physical activity patterns. A few clusters were genderspecific. For example, groups 1 and 4 were femaledominated clusters and group 3 was male-dominated. The younger children in the primary school had different sedentary and physical activity behaviors. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the use of LPA to group individuals into homogenous groupings in order to help researchers make informed decisions about the number of underlying groupings. This can have benefits for targeting specific groups in interventions.