The efficiency of mother's cooperative supervision on physical fitness indicators of overweight and obese children in home-based sports exercises

Abstract

Abstract Background The presence of a companion can improve the quality and amount of physical activity in terms of the increase in motivation and vitality of training sessions. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of mothers' participation in the sports exercises of overweight and obese children, along with monitoring the exercises on the indicators of a child's physical fitness. Methods 210 overweight and obese elementary school girls (from 10 to 12 years old) were included along with their mothers. All participants filled out the permission form before being randomly assigned to one of two intervention or control groups. The New York international exam, checkerboard test, and caliper were used to gauge the degree of musculoskeletal anomalies, whereas standard tests (pull-up, push-up, 1-mile run, sit and reach) were used to gauge signs of physical fitness. The standard MET/min method was used to evaluate and compare physical inactivity behaviors. Results In the collaborative monitoring group, by designing a special exercise program for mothers and children separately, the quality and amount of physical activity improved, and the average flexibility index after the intervention in the group where the mothers played the role of collaborative monitoring reached mean(SD) 23(6) cm, which is significant. It was the highest indicator, and no such difference was observed in the other group, where mothers only had a supervisory role. Conclusion Our study showed that when the mother's participation in her daughter's sports program is accompanied by doing sports with her, it results in much better and greater effects.