Physical activity carries multiple health and developmental benefits, and sedentary behaviors disadvantages across the lifespan. Given the benefits, recommendations of daily physical activity have been published, but among Finnish children aged 10-18 years, the focus population of this project, these recommendations are poorly met. To develop effective interventions, it is therefore imperative to identify groups of children at risk for low levels of physical activity and prolonged sedentary time as early in life as possible, preferably before their physical activity patterns and behaviors have been established. This project aims to identify these early life risk factors, studies physical activity and sedentary behaviors as highly polygenic traits, examines whether these polygenic traits protect or aggravate the risks of early life risk factors, and examines metabolomics as a mediator of these associations.

2024

2027