Brazil Publishes Updated Systematic Reviews for Brazil’s Report Card

Congratulations to the Report team from Brazil on their recent publications – updated systematic reviews for Brazil’s Report Card! Citation details and summaries of the papers are below.

Barbosa Filho VC, Costa RM, Oliveira BN, Castro VH, Silva KS. Prevalence of global physical activity among young people: An updated systematic review for the Brazil’s report card. Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria & Desempenho Humano. 2021;23. doi:10.1590/1980-0037.2021v23e82643

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to update the review of Brazil’s Report Card on the prevalence of global physical activity (PA) among Brazilian children and adolescents. This systematic review included an electronic search of eight databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS, SPORTDiscus, BIREME, Scielo, and Google Scholar) and a manual search of the references of retrieved studies. Studies published in 2018 and 2019 that assessed global PA among Brazilian youth were included. A narrative approach to the results was adopted. The initial search retrieved 1,892 potentially relevant titles (1,244 titles after duplicate analysis), of which 62 (47 different studies) met all the inclusion criteria. Most updated studies were carried out in Southern (40.4%) and Southeastern (25.5%) Brazil. Six studies provided data from national surveys (12.8%), and one study included preschool children (< 5 years old). Ten studies objectively measured PA (accelerometer or pedometer devices). In the updated studies, the overall proportion of young people who were physically active ranged from 9.8% to 79.6%. Three national surveys reported the prevalence of physically active students, ranging from 18.4% to 78.8%. There was an increase of surveys that objectively measured PA and with children under 12 years of age in the 2018 and 2019 studies. However, important research gaps (e.g., variations in the measurement of global PA), even in the same study, should be considered to improve the monitoring and evaluation of global PA in Brazil.

Martins PC, Alves Junior CA, Lima TR, et al. Prevalence of Brazilian children and adolescents who met health criteria for Aerobic Fitness: Systematic Review Update for Report Card Brazil Project. Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria & Desempenho Humano. 2021;23. doi:10.1590/1980-0037.2021v23e78858

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to update Brazilian evidence on the prevalence of children and adolescents who met health criteria for aerobic fitness. This systematic review is part of the Report Card Brazil Project and the search was restricted to studies published during the period from January 2018 to December 2019 in nine electronic databases. Studies with different designs, which allowed extracting information about the prevalence of children and adolescents who met health criteria for aerobic fitness (age up to 19 years or average age up to 19 years) were included. Studies published from 2020 were not included due to the possible effect of the pandemic on this indicator and because there is no certainty as to when the pandemic will end. Of the 694 studies initially identified, 13 studies with information of 14,673 children and adolescents were included after reading titles, abstracts, full texts and references. The prevalence of children and adolescents who met health criteria for aerobic fitness was 26.9% (29.7% for girls; 44.6% for boys). In this search, eight different cutoff points were used to determine adequate aerobic fitness levels and five tests were used to determine aerobic fitness. Analyzing data from the present review with the previous systematic review of this project, one third of children and adolescents in Brazil meet health criteria for aerobic fitness.

Silva KS, Minatto G, Bandeira Ada, Santos PC, Sousa AC, Barbosa Filho VC. Sedentary behavior in children and adolescents: An update of the systematic review of the Brazil’s report card. Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria & Desempenho Humano. 2021;23. doi:10.1590/1980-0037.2021v23e82645

ABSTRACT

This review updated data on sedentary behavior in Brazilian children and adolescents for the Brazil’s Report Card 4.0. The searching was carried out in eight databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS, SPORTDiscus, BIREME, Scielo, and Google Scholar), based on the the following criteria: original research; samples including Brazilian children and adolescents; to be a observational survey with the prevalence of at least one component of sedentary behavior. In this updated review were included 118 studies (corresponding to 159 papers), being 71 studies (104 papers) previously reviewed in the Report Card 3.0 and 47 studies (55 papers) found in update from 2018 to 2019. Screen time (34.7%) and TV viewing (28.2%) remains the most investigated components, however, two studies investigated cell phone use, and there was an increase in other types of sedentary behavior such as sitting time (from 9% to 25.6%). We found only four studies involving pre-scholars, but four of them covered almost all age groups. Self-reported questionnaire was the instrument more used; however, increased the studies using accelerometers (from 2 to 8 studies). The cut-off point more frequent was 2 hours/day (47.5%), but the use of other measures doubled. Almost 70% of the studies reported that less than 50% (general range: 9.4% to 97.7%) of individuals had < 2 hours/day of sedentary behavior. The updated review found few studies with prescholars and children; using validated instruments; using accelerometers, with standardization of cutoff points, and prevalences very close to what was observed in the previous review.

Victo ER, Figueiredo TK, Solé D, Werneck AO, Silva DR, Ferrari G. Systematic review of active transportation to school in youth – an update from Brazil’s report card. Revista Brasileira de Cineantropometria & Desempenho Humano. 2021;23. doi:10.1590/1980-0037.2021v23e81169

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to update a systematic review on the use of active transportation to school in Brazilian children and adolescents. All studies were extracted from the LILACS; BIREME; SCIELO and MEDLINE. The search was carried out on manuscripts published in the period 2018-2019. The descriptors were used in Portuguese, English and Spanish. In overall, 8 manuscripts were included in this systematic review, with 1 presenting data from three periods (2009, 2012 and 2015). The study data were obtained between 2009 and 2015 and the age group found between 7 to 19 years old. Of the selected articles, 2 presented national data, 1 from the north, 2 from the northeast, 1 from the southeast and 2 from the south of Brazil. The use of active transportation was superior to passive transportation on 6 occasions and its use was common in boys than in girls (4 of 6 articles). The use of active transportation is still more common than passive transportation in most Brazilian regions, although some cities have the opposite. The results suggest that the prevalence of active transportation is higher in boys than girls. Public policies must be created to favor the use of active transportation among Brazilian youth.