Active parents, active youth? Exploring the association between physical activity of youth with Cystic Fibrosis and their parents

Background: Parents play a major role in shaping their children's physical activity (PA) behaviour. This study aimed to investigate the association between PA of youth with Cystic Fibrosis (YwCF) and their parents.

Methods: PA was measured by an ActiGraph GT3x-BT for seven consecutive days. Data were processed by GGIR and PA intensities were based on the age-specific Hildebrand equations. Moderate-to-vigorous PA was chosen as primary outcome.

Results: 26 YwCF-parent dyads participated. A significant positive association was found between parental PA behaviour and YwCF's PA behaviour for both moderate-to-vigorous PA and total PA (R² = 0.60; p = 0.001; R² = 0.64; p < 0.001). Furthermore, YwCF with less active parents perform 16 min/day less moderate-to-vigorous PA compared to YwCF with more active parents (p = 0.004).

Conclusion: Higher parental PA levels are strongly associated with higher YwCF's PA levels. This association needs to be confirmed in a larger cohort to explore whether parental behaviour is an effective strategy to improve YwCF's PA levels.