Meeting the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and physical-mental comorbidity among Chinese children and adolescents: Prevalence, associations, and the population impacts

Objectives: To examine the association between meeting the Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines and physical-mental comorbidity among children and adolescents in a cross-sectional study.

Methods: A total of 21,061 students aged 11-17 years from Zhejiang Province, China was recruited in the study. We examined the coexistence of five specific physical illnesses - hypertension, high myopia, dental caries, scoliosis, and obesity - with mental illness, specifically depressive symptoms. Generalized linear mixed models were performed to assess the association between overall and specific combinations of movement guidelines and physical-mental comorbidity, presented by odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Population attributable fraction (PAF) was calculated to estimate the preventable proportion of comorbid cases via meeting all three movement recommendations.

Results: Of the included participants, 19.3% had physical-mental comorbidity. There were 3.8% and 17.0% meeting all three and none of the recommendations, respectively. Meeting at least one recommendation, except for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity recommendation only, was associated with a lower risk of physical-mental comorbidity, with ORs (95% CIs) ranging from 0.72 (0.66-0.79) to 0.40 (0.31-0.51). Meeting more recommendations was associated with decreased comorbid risks, and the association was stronger in 4th-6th graders. The association between specific combinations of recommendations and comorbid risks showed differences by gender and grade. Of the comorbid cases, 42.1% were attributed to not adhering to all three recommendations, and the PAFs varied from 27.4% to 55.7% across different genders and grades.

Conclusion: Adherence to the 24-h movement guidelines was associated with lower risks of physical-mental comorbidity among children and adolescents.