Gender differences in the proportion of Japanese parents meeting recommendations within 24- hour movement guidelines and associations with weight status

Background Canadian 24-h movement guidelines were developed to improve health of adults. Parents’ healthy behaviours are especially important because they are also 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 guidelines and their relationship with weight status (underweight or obesity) in Japanese parents. Methods This cross-sectional study included 425 mothers and 237 fathers who had children < 13 years of age. Weight status according to measured body mass index (BMI) was classified by < 18.5 kg/m 2 and ≥ 25 kg/m 2 as the cut-off for underweight and obesity, respectively. Meeting the 24-h movement guidelines was defined as: ≥150 min/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (Canadian PA recommendation) or at least 60 min/day of MVPA (Japanese PA recommendation), ≤ 8 h/day of sedentary time which includes ≤ 3 hours of recreational screen time, and 7 to 9 h/night of sleep. MVPA and sedentary time were accelerometer-determined while and screen time and sleep duration were self-reported. Results The prevalence of mothers meeting all three recommendations was 30.6% using Canadian physical activity guidelines and 20.7% using Japanese physical activity guidelines, while that of fathers was 10.6% and 8.0%, respectively. Mothers not meeting the sedentary behaviour 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 or 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 behaviours and weight status, particularly among Japanese women, whose routine behaviours may be misclassified as sedentary.