{
  "abstract": "Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading global cause of mortality, with risk factors emerging in childhood and tracking into adulthood. Socioeconomic position (SEP) is a well-established determinant of CVD risk, with emerging evidence suggesting a stronger association in females than males. Physical activity (PA), a key modifiable risk factor, exhibits socioeconomic patterning, yet sex-specific trajectories from childhood to adulthood remain underexplored. This study aims to examine the sex-specific associations between SEP and PA trajectories from childhood to early adulthood.Methods Data were from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a prospective birth cohort study in southwest England, born in 1991/1992. SEP was measured using maternal education from questionnaires administered to mothers at 32-weeks’ gestation. PA was assessed using waist-worn uniaxial accelerometer-based measures, capturing total PA (counts per min), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (min/day), light PA (LPA) (min/day), and sedentary time (SED) (min/day) over ≥3 days at mean ages 11, 13, 15, and 24 years (y). We examined associations between SEP and PA trajectories using linear spline multilevel models, stratified by sex.Results 5,770 participants with 10,813 repeated measures of valid PA data (>600 mins of activity recorded) were included in analyses. From ages 11y to 25y, males had a higher mean total activity of 629.14 (SD = 198.99) counts per minute compared to females 517.40 (SD = 163.18). In terms of duration, males engaged in MVPA for an average of 29.53 mins/day (SD = 18.66), whereas females had a lower mean of 20.06 mins/day (SD = 14.99). Males also engaged with higher LPA with a mean of 310.40 mins/day (SD = 70.20) compared to females who had a mean of 289.43 mins/day (SD = 67.83). Regarding sedentary behaviour, females had more sedentary time with a mean of 466.76 mins/day (SD = 75.04) compared to males who had a mean of 444.75 mins/day (SD = 78.78). Socioeconomic inequalities in total activity and SED emerged at age 14y and widened with age up to 24y, particularly among males. Socioeconomic inequalities in MVPA emerged at age 14y among both sexes, narrowed at age 15y and re-emerged between ages 15y–24y. Socioeconomic inequalities in LPA were evident at age 11y and persisted throughout adolescence, with graded associations across levels of SEP among females only.Conclusion Sex-specific socioeconomic disparities in PA trajectories emerge early in adolescence and widen into adulthood, particularly among females. Findings underscore the need for targeted interventions promoting PA during adolescence, with a focus on reducing socioeconomic inequalities in CVD risk.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland"
      ],
      "name": "Prachi Sharma"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland"
      ],
      "name": "Kate O’Neill"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland"
      ],
      "name": "Farzana Ferdous"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland"
      ],
      "name": "Joice Cunningham"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland",
        "MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK",
        "Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Linda M O’Keeffe"
    }
  ],
  "title": "OP67 Sex-specific socioeconomic inequalities in physical activity trajectories from late childhood to early adulthood: a prospective cohort study",
  "uid": "7210d348-24a1-5a7f-85cc-e3839736d981"
}