Gross motor coordination and physical fitness in overweight and obese primary school children compared with normal weight peers

Abstract

The epidemic of childhood obesity, the decline in the level of motor competence and health-related fitness, and simultaneously the increase in physical inactivity have been the subject of global professional and scientific discourse in the last two decades. This study is focused on the analysis of the level of gross motor coordination and physical fitness in primary school children in terms of their weight status. Data were collected from 219 primary school children (50.68% girls) with an average age of 9.48 years (SD = 0.47 years). Gross motor coordination was assessed with the KTK test. The children's physical fitness was assessed using six items of the Eurofit test. The body mass index (BMI) of the participants was assessed based on the international childhood BMI cut-offs suggested by the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF). Differences in the examined motor indicators between overweight/obese children and normal weight children were evaluated using independent samples t-test. Pearson correlations were performed to explore the associations between motor coordination indicators and BMI. The results of this study revealed overweight or obesity in more than one fifth of the participants (25.2% of girls and 21.3% of boys). Our study provides evidence that excessive body weight is negatively reflected both in gross motor coordination and in a worse physical fitness profile of children. Weak to moderate inverse correlations (−0.17 ≤ r ≤ −0.39) were found between most of the gross motor coordination, physical fitness parameters and BMI, for both sexes. Considering the role of gross motor coordination and health-related fitness in the mechanism of shaping children's active lifestyle, early detection and intervention is necessary, especially in children with excessive body weight.