Socioeconomic disparities in organized sports participation and physical activity among a population based sample of preschool children: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundEncouraging children to participate in organized sports could increase physical activity and may promote lifelong healthy habits. There are socioeconomic disparities in organized sports participation in school-aged children and adolescents. However, it is not known if these socioeconomic disparities exist among preschool-aged children.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to examine (i) the association between organized sports participation and physical activity (ii) differences in organized sports participation according to socioeconomic status among preschool children.MethodsThe study sample was a representative population-based sample of 2935 preschool-aged children (48.3% girls; age range 2-6 years) in Stockholm, Sweden. Physical activity was measured using GT3X + accelerometers for one week at the fall of 2020 or in the spring of 2021 and organized sports participation was parent-reported. Parental education and a Stockholm based socioeconomic index were used to examine socioeconomic disparities. Linear regression was used to estimate associations between organized sports participation and physical activity and multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the differences in organized sports participation over parental education and neighborhood socioeconomic index.ResultsThe study population had a mean age of 4.5 years (SD = 0.9), consisted of 48.3% girls and spent in average 46.5 min (SD = 15.4) engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. Additionally, 1,658 children (56.5%) did not participate in organized sports. Participation in organized sports once a week or more was associated with a 2.8-min increase in average daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (95% CI; 1.56, 4.06), compared to not participating. Further, both living in a higher socioeconomic index area and higher parental education was associated with higher organized sports participation.ConclusionsParticipation in organized sports indicates a modest contribution to physical activity among preschool-aged children. However, participation in organized sports varies according to neighborhood socioeconomic index and parental education. These findings highlight the importance of targeting organized sport participation according to socioeconomic gradients, to moderate inequities in access and opportunity to organized sport.