Estudo de associação entre os níveis de coordenação motora, adiposidade e atividade física de crianças em idade escolar

Abstract

There is a growing scope of evidences which has indicated significant associations between motor coordination scores and some health-related attributes, such as levels of adiposity and physical activity. However, the inter-relationships among motor coordination, body fat percentage, and physical activity levels have been examined through bivariate analyses, without considering reciprocal influences these variables exert themselves, which might be the cause of biased results. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to analyze the inter-relationships among motor coordination, body fat percentage, and physical activity levels in children between 12 and 14 years old. One hundred and nineteen children (51 boys and 68 girls) were recruited. The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children, the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder, and an clinical caliper were used in order to asses, respectively, levels of physical activity, motor coordination, and body fatness. Pearson correlations were used in order to assess the bivariate associations between levels of physical activity and motor coordination as well between body fat percentage and motor coordination. Partial correlations were used to analyze the associations between levels of physical activity and motor coordination, controlling for body fat percentage, as well between body fat percentage and motor coordination, controlling for physical activity levels. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used to test differences among groups formed in according to status of body fatness and physical activity in order to examine the combined influence these variables on motor coordination scores. In general, our results indicated that associations of motor coordination scores with bodt fat percentage and physical activity levels can be altered in according to covariates included into analyses in boys, but not in girls. The fact of this phenomenon was not observed in girls might be related to low physical activity levels showed for them. Additional researches were suggested including girls with higher physical activity levels in order to test the hypothesis above mentioned. Finally, although none causal inferences have been established between variables analyzed in this study, we are sure that children must be encouraged to develop adequate levels of motor coordination due its association with health-related attributes.