The international study of movement behaviours in the early years: A pilot study from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The World Health Organization (WHO) released guidelines for physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior, and sleep for children under 5 years of age in 2019, but there are no reports on the adherence to the guidelines in southeastern Europe. This study aimed to: (i) determine the proportion of preschool children (aged 3-5 years) who met the WHO guidelines and examine the feasibility of the proposed protocol for the SUNRISE study in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), and (ii) define sex-, and urban/rural-living-specifics in movement-behaviors, anthropometrics, gross-motor-skills, fine-motor- skills, and cognitive-skills. The sample comprised 115 preschool children (63 girls and 52 boys), residing in urban (n = 66) and rural areas (n = 49) from B&H. Participants were tested on movement behaviors (PA, sleep time, screen time) by accelerometry and comprehensive questionnaires. Body height, weight, body mass index, executive function, fine-, and gross-motor skill, and cognitive function were also measured. The results showed that PA-, sleep duration-, and screen time guidelines were met by 64%, 74% and 53% of children, respectively, while only 23% of the children met all three guidelines on movement behaviors. Boys exhibited higher PA than girls, but no differences in gross- and fine motor skills and cognitive functioning were recorded between the sexes. Children living in urban and rural environments did not differ in any of the studied variables. Results evidenced preschool children from B&H being in line with other samples globally about study variables. Although PA was higher in boys than in girls it was not translated to differences in motor skills. Further studies on larger samples and other environments are warranted.