A simple assessment of physical activity is associated with obesity and motor fitness in pre-school children – Corrigendum (original) (raw)
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Wiener klinische Wochenschrift, 2018
Physical activity and physical fitness play an important role in the prevention of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence and reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese in adulthood. To evaluate the development of physical fitness in overweight and non-overweight primary school children from the first to third grades. Using a longitudinal study design, body height and weight as well as physical fitness of primary school children from Tyrol, Austria were measured five times during a period of 2.5 years using the German motor performance test (DMT 6-18). In total, 266 children (55% boys) with a mean age of 6.4 ± 0.5 years at baseline participated. The proportion of overweight children was 11% at baseline and 22% at the fifth time point. Overweight children showed a significantly lower physical fitness level (mean total z‑score of DMT6-18) at all 5 time points (Hedges g: 0.64-1.09). Repeated measurement analyses of variances showed a significant increase of physical f...
Sport Science, 2020
Nowadays, the early prevention of obesity in childhood is one of the most critical public health issues. More than half of children and adolescents worldwide do not meet the recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day. This trend can reduce physical fitness and, consequently, cause a decrease in the quality of life throughout the lifespan. Physical fitness, defined as a set of abilities to perform physical activity and exercise (such as aerobic capacity, endurance, strength, flexibility), is considered one of the most important health markers in adulthood and childhood as well as adolescence. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the physical fitness of pre-adolescent children of the Emilia-Romagna region. Children’s anthropometric parameters (height and weight) and physical fitness levels - assessed via the EUROFIT test battery - were measured. In all of the applied EUROFIT tests, children’s performance was below the sufficient age and gender values. Moreover, it was negatively associated with obesity. Our research provided evidence that the general fitness of our sample was low and the performance of overweight/obese children was lower compared to the under/normal weight students.
Motor fitness and preschooler children obesity status
Journal of sports sciences, 2016
The aim of this study was to examine the association between motor fitness (MF) and obesity status in preschool children. The sample comprised 467 children aged 3-6 years. Preschool children body mass index was classified according to International Obesity Task Force and categorised into three levels, normal, overweight and obesity. Total physical activity was assessed by accelerometer and MF test was assessed through two MF tests 10 × 5m shuttle run test (SRT) and a 7 m jumping distance on 2 feet test (J2F). Low MF was considered for MF if SD above 1. A single variable with three categories was created: low MF medium MF and high MF. The prevalence of normal weight, overweight and obesity was 67.6%, 22.7% and 9.7%, respectively. The prevalence of SD > 1 for SRT was 13.7% and 14.4% for J2F, for single variable was 19.2%. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that obese preschoolers were more likely six times classified as having low MF level than their non-overweight coun...
Objectively measured physical activity and body mass index in preschool children
2010
Aim. To examine the association between objectively measured physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) in preschool children. Methods. The study comprised 281 children (55.9% boys) aged from 4 to 6 years. PA was measured by accelerometer. Children were categorized as non-overweight (NOW) and overweight/obese (OW) according to the sex-adjusted BMI z-score (<1 and ≥1, resp.). Results. Total and moderate intensity PA were not associated with BMI. We observed that a higher proportion of OW children were classified as low-vigorous PA compared to their NOW peers (43.9 versus 32.1%, resp., P > .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that children with low-vigorous PA had higher odds ratio (OR) to be classified as OW compared to those with high-vigorous PA (OR = 4.4; 95% CI: 1.4-13.4; P = .008) after adjusting for BMI at first and second years of life and other potential confounders. Conclusion. The data suggests that vigorous PA may play a key role in the obesity development already at pre-school age.
Physical activity patterns of kindergarten children in comparison to teenagers and young adults
The European Journal of Public Health, 2007
Background: Due to the increasing occurrence of obesity and low physical activity (PA) reported in school children there is a need to investigate PA patterns of preschool children. Our aim was to identify the PA of preschool children in comparison to the PA of teenagers and young adults. Methods: PA of 104 Czech preschool children (aged 5-7 years), 1174 teenagers (aged 12-17 years) and 787 young adults (aged 18-24years) was determined using Caltrac accelerometery. PA was evaluated on the basis of activity energy expenditure (AEE -kcal kg À1 day À1 ). Subjects were monitored over 7 days to include a weekend. Results: The AEE in preschool children was significantly higher in comparison to all age groups of teenagers and young adults during both weekdays and at the weekend (P < 0.0001). On weekdays during leisure time, preschoolers were considerably more physically active than all categories of teenagers and young adults (P < 0.001). Preschoolers show similarities in PA level between weekdays and weekends, unlike the older age groups. Conclusion: It seems to appear that organized daily PA (2 Â 20 min of exercising on carpet, 50-70 min of walking outdoors) in preschool children along with enough space for spontaneous PA establishes prerequisites for their further healthy development.
2012
Aiming at a holistic development, children starting school should not only possess cognitive and linguistic, but also motor competences. High physical activity in childhood also sustains the prevention of overweight and obesity in youth and adulthood as well as of cardiovascular diseases. To find early indicators for a healthy lifestyle, the study focussed on the motor behaviour and development of preschool children and on the social influences on these factors. 1,489 children participated in the school-entry health examination for the year 2011/2012 and in the motor tests. Data on leisure time activities of the children and on parents' native language and educational background were acquired by questionnaires. Strong associations were found for the educational and language background of parents with children' s BMI, physical activity and media consumption. Significantly fewer children of families with lower educational background and of families with migration background had learned to swim or to ride a bike. Those children also performed worse in the standing long jump, but not in the balancing task and in bidirectional jumping. Normal-weight children reached the best results in all motor tasks. To provide a similar base for a healthy and active life, it has to be ensured that children of all cultures and social classes are addressed with activity programmes. This could be an important contribution to a healthy and holistic development the child' s personality.
International Journal of Obesity, 2011
Background: Adiposity, low aerobic fitness and low levels of activity are all associated with clustered cardiovascular disease risk in children and their high prevalence represents a major public health concern. Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of objectively measured physical activity (PA) with motor skills (agility and balance), aerobic fitness and %body fat in young children. Design: This study is a cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses using mixed linear models. Longitudinal data were adjusted for baseline outcome parameters. Subjects: In all, 217 healthy preschool children (age 4-6 years, 48% boys) participated in this study. Measurements: PA (accelerometers), agility (obstacle course), dynamic balance (balance beam), aerobic fitness (20-m shuttle run) and %body fat (bioelectric impedance) at baseline and 9 months later. Results: PA was positively associated with both motor skills and aerobic fitness at baseline as well as with their longitudinal changes. Specifically, only vigorous, but not total or moderate PA, was related to changes in aerobic fitness. Higher PA was associated with less %body fat at baseline, but not with its change. Conversely, baseline motor skills, aerobic fitness or %body fat were not related to changes in PA. Conclusion: In young children, baseline PA was associated with improvements in motor skills and in aerobic fitness, an important determinant of cardiovascular risk.
Overweight and obesity in childhood - how can physical activity help?
2006
Summary The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and youth is increasing worldwide. In Germany, between 10 to 20% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. An excessive energy intake, decreased physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle have been implicated as risk factors besides a possible genetic predisposition and a low socio-economic status. Energy intake seems to have stabilised over the last decades, there- fore physical activity is in the centre of scientific interest. Data on children's activity and its correlation with obesity are sparse and inconsistent. Several studies described decreased motor abilities in overweight children compared to their normal weight counterparts, especially in co-ordination and endurance performance. Some authors found differences between the fitness of obese and non-obese children, others did not. Energy expenditure seems not to differ between overweight and normal weight children. There is a general agreement th...
Frontiers in Psychology
Physical inactivity is recognized as a determinant of low physical fitness and body composition in preschool children, which in turn, are important markers of health through the lifespan. Objective methods to assess physical activity, physical fitness and body composition in preschool children are preferable; however, they have some practical limitations in the school context. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test whether a single question regarding physical activity level of preschool children, reported by their parents, could be used as an alternative screening tool of physical fitness and body composition. The information was obtained from 10 different cities throughout Spain, gathering a total of 3179 healthy preschool children (52.8% boys and 47.2% girls) aged 3-5 years. Physical activity levels of preschool children were reported by parents using a single question with five response options (very low, low, average, high, or very high). Physical fitness and body composition were assessed with the PREFIT fitness battery. The results showed that parents' perception of their children's physical activity was positively associated with all objectively measured physical fitness components (β range = −0.094 to 0.113; all p < 0.020); and negatively with body composition indicators as measured (β range = −0.113 to −0.058; all p < 0.001). The results showed significant differences in all physical fitness and body composition z-scores across the
Deleterious effects of obesity on physical fitness in pre-pubertal children
European journal of sport science, 2015
The prevalence of obesity in children has increased dramatically during the past decades in Europe and understanding physical fitness and its components in children is critical to design and implement effective interventions. The objective of the present study was to analyse the association between physical fitness (aerobic, speed, agility, power, flexibility and balance) and body mass index (BMI) in pre-pubertal children. A total of 2411 healthy schoolchildren (7-11 years) participated in this study. Anthropometric characteristics and body composition were assessed by skinfold thickness. Physical fitness was measured by nine physical fitness tests: endurance running, 20 m running speed, agility, handgrip strength, standing long jump and squat jump, sit and reach, medicine ball forward throw and static balance. No relevant differences were observed between boys and girls regarding anthropometric characteristics, body composition and physical fitness. However, overweight and obese ch...