Factors Associated with Students Meeting Components of Canada’s New 24-Hour Movement Guidelines over Time in the COMPASS Study

This study aimed to determine if secondary school students are meeting the new Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (24-MG), as well as each individual recommendation (physical activity; sleep; sedentary behavior) within the 24-MG, and which student-level characteristics predict meeting the 24-MG, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. This study is the first to examine longitudinal changes in students meeting the 24-MG, as well as student-level characteristics that were predictive of favourable shifts in movement patterns. Cross-sectional data were obtained for 11,793 grade 9 students across Canada as part of the COMPASS study. Of this sample, 3713 students provided linked follow-up data from grade 9 to grade 12. The probability of meeting the guidelines was modeled using two-level logistic regression analyses, adjusting for student-level co-variates and school clustering. Only 1.28% ( p < 0.0001) of the sample met the overall 24-MG. Among grade 9 students, 35.9% ( p < 0.0001), 50.8% ( p < 0.0001), and 6.4% ( p < 0.0001) were meeting the individual recommendations for physical activity, sleep, and screen time, respectively. Of those students, less than half were still meeting them by grade 12. Community sport participation was the only predictor of all three individual recommendations within the 24-MG. Longitudinal analyses found that community sport participation and parental support and encouragement were significantly associated with Grade 12 students starting to meet the physical activity and screen time recommendations, respectively, after having not met them in grade 9. Findings can be used to inform policy and public health practice, as well as to inform future research examining causal relationships between the variables.