Critical Periods of Exercise
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01041820. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Early childhood (\~3-7 years of age) is an important window for determining body composition trajectory and may be a critical period for the development of tissue partitioning patterns that influence obesity risk. As adiposity accelerates during this critical period, deposition/ preservation of fat stores may be sustained at the 'expense' of other tissues; i.e. energy homeostasis may be inherently biased toward fat gain. The type and amount of tissue mass accrued in early childhood has implications for metabolic profile, glucose/insulin homeostasis, hormone profile and resting energy expenditure. The interplay between fat and bone deposition represents a physiologic trait enabling the body to choose between shuttling 'energy' towards accrual of a particular tissue. Plausibly the phenotype underlying obesity and diabetes risk may be determined by the differentiation of cell type (adipocyte, osteocyte, etc.) during this early stage of growth and development. In vitro studies demonstrate transdifferentiation under the influence of specific external stimuli, which can switch phenotypes toward other cell lineages. Further, rodent models have demonstrated that exposure to stimuli (exercise) early in life may prevent excess fat mass accrual in adulthood, even when the stimulus is later removed (animals are no longer exercising). Children's early experiences (engagement in physical activity vs. sedentary behavior) may 'environmentally induce' alterations in body composition and predispose individuals to obesity throughout life. Aim 1. To examine the associations between body composition via DXA and objectively-measured physical activity/inactivity. 1. Hypothesis 1.1: There is a positive association between physical activity and bone mass. 2. Hypothesis 1.2: There is a positive association between sedentary behavior and total fat mass. Aim2. To examine the associations between adipose tissue distribution via MRI and objectively-measured physical activity/inactivity. 3. Hypothesis 2.1: There is an inverse association between physical activity and bone marrow adipose tissue. 4. Hypothesis 2.2: There is a positive association between sedentary behavior and bone marrow adipose tissue.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01041820
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 20 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 3 Years to 7 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 30, 2009
- Primary completion
- Nov 30, 2010
- Completion
- May 31, 2011
- Last update posted
- Nov 24, 2019
2009 – 2011
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 2
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Care Center | Birmingham | Alabama | 35210 | — |
| University of Alabama at Birmingham | Birmingham | Alabama | 35294 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01041820, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Nov 24, 2019 · Synced Sep 4, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01041820 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.