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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1483007
This article is part of the Research TopicBuilding Health Through Physical Activity in Schools - Volume IIView all 8 articles
Association of physical activity and sedentary time with scoliosis screening positive in Chinese primary and secondary school students: a cohort study in Shanghai
Provisionally accepted
Liting Chu
Dongling YangFengyun ZhangWenjuan QiYuting HuangYanting Yang
Shuangxiao QuShenglei HuangKeyang ZhengChunyan Luo*- Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC), Shanghai, China
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The relationship between physical activity (PA), sedentary time (ST), and positive scoliosis screening (SSP) among Chinese students has not been extensively studied. This study aims to explore this association using data from the Shanghai Municipal Dynamic Cohort of Student Common Diseases (SMDCSCD).We conducted a repeated measures study over three waves (2021, 2022, and 2023). SSP was determined through physical examinations, while PA and ST data were collected via questionnaires. Sufficient moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) was defined as more than 60 minutes per day, and excessive ST was classified as sitting for 4.5 hours or more daily.The study included 6,829 students with 19,673 observations. The prevalence of SSP ranged from 0.11% in Grade 1 to 2.77% in Grade 8 (P-trend < 0.001). Significant differences in ST (minutes/day) were found between the SSP and scoliosis screening negative (SSN) groups in the first two years (P = 0.026 and P = 0.023, respectively), but no significant differences were observed in total PA levels (MET-min/week) (P > 0.05). In a multivariable-adjusted model, ST of 4.5 hours or more per day was positively associated with SSP (OR = 2.405, 95% CI: 1.323 to 4.374). No significant association was found between PA and SSP (P > 0.05).The prevalence of positive scoliosis screening increased with grade level. Longer sedentary time was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of positive scoliosis screening, while no significant association was found between physical activity levels and scoliosis screening outcomes. These findings suggest that reducing sedentary time may be important for scoliosis prevention in students, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to promote healthier daily habits.
Keywords: Students, Scoliosis, physical activity, sedentary time, Dynamic cohort, longitudinal analysis
Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chu, Yang, Zhang, Qi, Huang, Yang, Qu, Huang, Zheng and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chunyan Luo, Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC), Shanghai, China
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