Gender differences in the proportion of Japanese parents meeting 24‐h movement guidelines and associations with weight status

Abstract Objectives Parents' healthy behaviors are important for both their health and role models for their children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adherence to the three recommendations associated with health in the Canadian 24‐h movement or Japanese physical activity (PA) guidelines and their relationship with weight status (underweight or obesity) in Japanese parents. Methods This cross‐sectional study included 425 mothers and 237 fathers. Meeting the 24‐h movement guidelines was defined as: ≥150 min/week of moderate‐to‐vigorous PA (MVPA) (Canada) or at least 60 min/day of MVPA (Japan), ≤8 h/day of sedentary time which includes ≤3 h of recreational screen time, and 7 to 9 h/night of sleep. MVPA and sedentary time were accelerometer‐determined while screen time and sleep duration were self‐reported. Results The prevalence of mothers meeting all three recommendations was 30.6% using Canadian PA guidelines and 20.7% using Japanese PA guidelines, while that of fathers was 10.6% and 8.0%, respectively. Mothers not meeting the sedentary behavior recommendation had a lower odds ratio and those not meeting Japanese PA recommendations had a higher odds ratio for underweight compared to mothers meeting the recommendations, adjusted for age and area socioeconomic status. Conclusions The screen time recommendation and Japanese PA recommendation were associated with underweight in mothers. None of the recommendations was associated with weight status in fathers. Further research is needed to understand the relationships among movement behaviors and weight status, particularly among Japanese women, whose routine behaviors, such as household activities, may be misclassified by a questionnaire.