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Consuming Iron‐Biofortified Pearl Millet Improves Measures of Free‐Living Physical Activity in Indian School Children
Author(s) -
Luna Sarah Victoria,
Denvir Brendan,
Udipi Shobha A,
Ghugre Padmini S,
Przybyszewski Eric M,
Haas Jere D
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.914.1
Subject(s) - physical activity , micronutrient , sedentary behavior , medicine , iron deficiency , metabolic equivalent , energy expenditure , environmental health , physical therapy , demography , pathology , sociology , anemia
Background Iron deficiency is the most widespread micronutrient deficiency in the world and has negative effects on physical performance. The impact of iron deficiency and repletion on free‐living physical activity is less well understood due to inherent difficulties associated with its measurement. Objective To examine the efficacy of a six‐month iron biofortified pearl millet intervention on improving measures of free‐living physical activity in iron depleted Indian school children aged 12–16 years. Methods Physical activity data were collected from the children using Actigraph GT3X accelerometers for one week at baseline and endline (six months). Energy expenditure was calculated in metabolic equivalents (METs) from accelerometer counts using Crouter's refined two‐regression model after filtering out nonwear time. Mixed regression models with repeated measures were used to analyze the treatment by time interaction using data from all days at baseline and endline. Outcome variables include steps and number of minutes spent in sedentary behaviors (MET=1), light activity (MET 1–3), and moderate‐to‐vigorous activity (MET >3). Results Data from 134 Indian students were analyzed by gender accounting for nonwear time. For boys, significant treatment‐by‐time interactions in the expected directions were found for the minutes spent in sedentary behaviors (p<0.001), light activity (p=0.004), and moderate‐vigorous activity (p=0.012). For girls, significant treatment‐by‐time interactions were found for the number of steps taken (p=0.020), minutes spent in sedentary behaviors (p=0.009), and minutes spent in light activity (p=0.005). Additionally, girls in the biofortified pearl millet group significantly increased the average number of steps per day from 6487 at baseline to 7326 at endline (839 steps; p=0.022). Conclusion Consuming iron‐biofortified pearl millet improved measures of free‐living physical activity in Indian school children. Support or Funding Information Funded by Harvest Plus