Summary report of the update of systematic reviews of the evidence to inform the WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep in children under 5 years of age

Background: The guidelines development group for the WHO Global guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age met in November 2017. At this meeting they requested that the recent, high-quality systematic reviews on physical activity (1), sedentary behaviours (2), sleep (3) and the integration of these behaviours in a 24-hour day (4) in children under 5 years of age, that had informed the development of guidelines in Canada and subsequently updated to inform guidelines in Australia (5), be updated. In particular they requested that searches be expanded to incorporate all 6 official languages and any high-quality studies published since the systematic review searches in March 2017. All new high-quality studies identified were included in the GRADE tables included in the WHO guidelines.

Research Question: What are the relationships between movement behaviours (i.e., physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, or combinations of movement behaviours) and “critical” health indicators in the early years (0-4 years)?