After months of early in the afternoon, the arrival of the holidays is a breath of fresh air for many homes - and, especially for children. The youngest of the house take advantage of the holidays to change their daily routine: the bedroom schedules change and get out of bed, take advantage of the morning to devote themselves to what they want, and can be forgotten for a few days of those tedious extracurricular classes, which They leave them without free time during the course. Everything seems, a priori, positive. But how do holidays affect children's health?

Vacation and lifestyle in children

The answer to the question about how children's health has a recent study published in the Pediatric Obesity (1). The researchers analyzed for 2 years a group of 133 children through accelerometers and questionnaires (filled both by them and their parents), including holiday periods and schoolchildren. The results showed that during the holidays the children performed less physical activity of moderate or high intensity ( 12 minutes less per day ) compared to the school months, increasing the time of sedentary lifestyle in 27 minutes per day . In addition, one of the most striking results was that during holiday periods the use of screens increased by 70 minutes per day , and the diet quality was diminished (consuming, for example, 1 less ration of fruits and vegetables during vacations compared to the school period). These results agree with those of another study in more than 300 Australian children, which showed that energy expenditure was 5-6% lower during holiday periods than in the school period, partly because children slept more ( 40 more minutes), they were more sitting (30 more minutes) and/or watching television (60 minutes), and performed less intense physical activity (10 minutes less) (2). It is important to take into account, however, that these differences could be modified in part according to variables such as sex or socio -economic status of families. For example, it has been observed that girls usually use their time during holidays in more sedentary activities than boys, and the same goes for children of families with a high socio -economic status, who spend more time sitting compared to those of families with low socioeconomic status (3).

These results can be a priori understandable. Children have the right to take a break from their daily routine, and nothing happens if they replace (within reasonable limits) part of their school time with screens or, in general, sedentary activities. In fact, something similar has been observed when compared on weekends with the days during the week, finding that 80% of children carry out more "obesogenic" habits during weekends (worse diet, more sedentary lifestyle, and less physical activity) (4). But on the other hand, we must be careful with these habits especially if we take into account that, in countries like Spain, summer holidays are lengthened up to 3 months. In fact, in the aforementioned study they calculated that, if that 5-6% difference in daily energy expenditure was maintained for 6 weeks, each child would earn approximately 650 grams of fat mass (2). Between 1 and 1.5 kg of fat dough if we extrapolate that data at 12 weeks of vacation enjoyed in our country. Therefore, those "little" changes in daily habits could have greater consequences than we think if they are kept cumulatively.

Changes in body weight during holidays

There is in fact evidence that shows that children gain more weight during the holidays than during the school period (as we have already mentioned here ). For example, a study evaluated the weight and height of more than 3500 children between 5 and 7 years for a period of 5 years (5). The results showed that during school periods the body mass index delentil (which takes into account the relationship between weight and height) decreased by 1.5 average points, while during vacation periods this percentile increased by 5.2 points. A curious result was that, in an analysis according to the different categories of weight, the authors observed that during the school period those that reduced their body mass indexes were those that presented overweight or obesity, but not those who had a weight Normal - although everyone gained weight during the holiday period ( Figure 2 ).

Conclusions

We currently live a pandemic of obesity in adults (1 in 4 adults suffers this condition worldwide), but this pandemic has its origin from the earliest age (6,7). According to the study steps of the Gasol Foundation, made in more than 3000 Spanish children, more than 60% of the child population does not meet the physical activity recommendations of the World Health Organization (60 minutes a day of moderate physical activity or vigorous at least), between 30% and 50% do not meet sleep recommendations, and 80% use excessive screens (here we must remember that, according to international recommendations, children under 2 should not do use of screens, and the elderly of that age should limit their use to a maximum of a day). Among the many consequences of these life habits we have the risk of obesity that, according to the study steps, affects 1 in 3 children between 8 and 16 years. As we see, these deficiencies in lifestyle can be accentuated during the holidays, during which children spend more time in sedentary activities, make even more use of screens, and participate less in physical activities of moderate or vigorous intensity (which it provides the greatest health benefits) ( Figure 3 ). All these changes can have many consequences, including an increase in body weight that often does not return to "normal" values ​​when returning to school, increasing the risk of present and future obesity (as well as the risks associated with the same, as we have commented on previous occasions).

Therefore, although vacations are an ideal time to disconnect from routine, we must not forget the need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. As much habits 

References:

1. Watson A, Maher C, Golley R, Dumuid D, Olds T, Manson A, et al. Children 'S Activity and Diet Behaviours in the Summer Holidays versus School Year. PEDIAT OBES. 2023; (March): 1–9. 

2. Olds T, Maher C, Dumuid D. Life on Holidays: Differences in Activity Composition Between School and Holiday periods in Australian Children. BMC Public Health. 2019; 19 (Suppl 2): ​​1–8. 

3. Nagy Lc, Faisal M, Horne M, Collings P, Barber S, Mohammed M. Factors Associated With Accelerometer Measured Movement Behaviours Among White British and South Asian Children Anged 6-8 Years During School Terms and School Holidays. BMJ Open. 2019; 9 (8): 1–8. 

4. Bracendale K, Beets MW, Weaver RG, Pate RR, Turner-McGrievy GM, Kaczynski At, et al. Underestanding Differences Between Summer vs. School Obesogenic Behaviors of Children: The Structured Day Hypothesis. Int J Behav Nut Phys Act. 2017; 14 (1): 1–14. 

5. Moreno JP, Johnston CA, Woehler D. Changes in Weight Over The School Year and Summer Vacation: Results of A 5-Longitudinal Study. J Sch Health. 2013; 83 (7): 473–7. 

6. Bentham J, Di Cesare M, Bilano V, Bixby H, Zhou B, Stevens Ga, et al. Worldwide Trends in Body-Mass Index, Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity from 1975 to 2016: A Poold Analysis of 2416 Population-Based Measurement Studies in 128 · 9 Million Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Lancet 2017; 390 (10113): 2627–42. 

7. Di Cesare M, Bentham J, Stevens Ga, Zhou B, Danaei G, Lu and, et al. Trends in Adult Body-Mass Index in 200 Countries from 1975 to 2014: A Poold Analysis of 1698 Population-Based Measurement Studies With 19.2 Million Participants. Lancet [Internet]. 2016; 387 (10026): 1377–96. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(16)30054-x