Children From Immigrant Families More Likely to Lead Sedentary Lifestyle

A team of researchers have found that children in immigrant families are more likely to be sedentary as compared to the U.S.-born white children.

The study, led by sociologists at the Rice University, found that immigrant children from all racial and ethnic backgrounds are at a high risk of leading a sedentary lifestyle as compared to U.S.-born white children. The researchers suggest that pediatricians and parents of children in immigrant families should boost the children to get involved in physical activity.

Even after considering several factors like socio-demographic and neighborhood characteristics, the researchers noticed that children in immigrant families were seen adhering to low levels of physical activity. Low levels of exercise led to rapid breathing, perspiration and rapid heartbeat for 20 continuous minutes or more.

They noticed that it was children of Asian immigrants who had a three-fold increased risk of leading a sedentary lifestyle as compared to the U.S.-born white children; whereas children of Hispanic immigrants and those of unspecified ethnicity were nearly two times more likely to have lower levels of physical activity.

The finding is based on the evaluation of the data retrieved from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study that included 17,510 participants with kindergarteners on factors affecting the development of children between 1998 and 1999.

Higher rates of physical activity was seen among the U.S.-born white children as compared to the minority children born in the U.S. , but the gap is not that wide when compared to the one that exists between children of immigrants.

U.S.-born black children are 1.35 times more likely to have lower levels of physical activity, while U.S.-born Hispanic children are 1.23 times more likely and U.S.-born children of unspecified ethnicity were 1.52 times likely to have low physical activity levels.

"Children in immigrant families are at particular risk for low levels of physical activity, which we were unable to explain with a host of factors relating to family and neighborhood characteristics," said Rachel Kimbro, study's co-author. "These children comprise a growing population of American youth, and failing to address the low levels of physical activity among this group could have important long-term health consequences as this population transitions into adolescence and adulthood."

The study was documented in Social Science and Medicine.