Original research
Correlation between BMI and motor coordination in children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2011.07.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives: To analyze the association between motor coordination (MC) and body mass index (BMI) across childhood and early adolescence. Design: This study is cross-sectional. Methods: Data were collected in 7175 children (boys n = 3616, girls n = 3559), ages 6–14 years. BMI was calculated from measured height and weight [body mass (kg)/height (m2)]. Motor coordination was evaluated using Kiphard-Schilling's body coordination test (KTK). Spearman's rank correlation was used to study the association between BMI and MC. A Kruskal–Wallis test was used to analyze the differences in MC between children of normal weight, overweight and obese children. Results: Correlations between MC and BMI were negative and varied between 0.05 and 0.49. The highest negative correlations for both boys and girls was at 11 years of age. There was a general pattern of increasing negative correlations in both genders from 6 to 11 years of age and then a decrease in correlation strengths through 14 years of age. In both boys (χ2(2) = 324.01; p < 0.001) and girls (χ2(2) = 291.20; p < 0.001) there were significant differences in MC between the three groups’ weight status. Normal weight children of both sexes demonstrated significantly higher MC scores than overweight. Obese children in both sexes had the lowest MC scores among all three groups. Conclusion: Motor coordination demonstrated an inverse relationship with BMI across childhood and into early adolescence. The strength of the inverse relation increased during childhood, but decreased through early adolescence. Overweight and obese children of both sexes demonstrated significantly lower MC than normal weight children.

Introduction

The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing worldwide. In Europe, the percentage of overweight and obesity in adolescents ranges from 3% to almost 35% in 13-year-olds and from 5% to 28% in 15-year-olds. In Portugal 32% of children between seven to nine years of age are overweight or obese.1

Although several studies have shown that obese children and adolescents are less physically active than their non-obese peers, relationships between physical activity (PA), sedentary activity, and obesity in children and adolescents has not been clearly established.2 Overall, many studies examining PA and/or weight status in children have only provided data on psychological and environmental correlates.3 Recent studies have focused on understanding the relationships among motor coordination (MC) and health-related behaviors and attributes. A recent review on the relationships among MC and health benefits in children and adolescents4 indicated MC levels are inversely correlated with weight status, but positively correlated with PA, and perceived physical competence in cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Weight status was negatively correlated with MC in six of nine studies, with the remaining three demonstrating no relationship. This review of associations of MC and aspects of physical and psychological attributes provides indirect evidence that MC may be an important antecedent/consequent mechanism for promoting to healthy lifestyles related behaviors, including weight status.

Despite the fact that a large number of children do not achieve PA recommendations5 children are naturally drawn to be active and, if provided the opportunity, often engage in active play6 Inherent pleasure associated with movement,7 as well as the psychological benefits associated with MC8 may be important contributors to children's PA.

Stodden et al.9 proposed a developmental and recursive model suggesting that obesity trajectories may be triggered by the cumulative effects that lower levels of MC has on reducing movement opportunities (PA), physical fitness, and perceived physical competence during childhood. Overall, low MC will result in unsuccessful participation in movement play activities and/or sports in middle to late childhood, thus leading to a negative spiral of disengagement from an active lifestyle. Accordingly, the model predicts that MC levels will eventually lead to positive or negative obesity trajectories over time as the recursive nature of the model effects compound over time. To our knowledge, no studies have specifically examined the relationship between MC and weight status over time.

It is important to note that the term “motor coordination,” used in this study is a general term that encompasses various aspects of movement competency. There are many different test batteries that assess movement in a variety of ways using different movement tests. Specifically, process and product oriented movement assessments are used to examine differences in levels of MC. For example, the aforementioned review article4 reported data from many studies that assessed “fundamental movement skills” (i.e., object control and locomotor skills) from a subjective, process-oriented perspective. That is, actual movements, and not the product of the movements, were subjectively assessed to differentiate skill levels. Alternatively, other studies not used in the Lubans et al. review have used product-oriented movement assessments.10, 11, 12 These types of assessments examine objective outcomes of movements (e.g., distance, speed). While it is outside the scope of this study to explain the differences and limitations in how movement and/or movement outcomes are assessed,9 we used the term “motor coordination” in this study as it specifically aligns with the language used in the assessment implemented for this study (Kiphard-Schilling body coordination test) and with previous literature that has used the same assessment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between MC (as defined by the Kiphard-Schilling body coordination test) and weight status (BMI) across childhood and early adolescence. This is the first study to specifically address the possible changing relationships between weight status and MC across a wide range of ages.

Section snippets

Methods

Data were collected from 7175 children (boys n = 3616 – girls n = 3,559), between 6 and 14 years of age (see Table 1 in supplementary material). These data were combined from several research projects13, 14, 15 conducted by the authors in four regions of Portugal (Azores Islands, Madeira Islands, northeast and central regions of continental area) between 2003 and 2009. All children were attending public schools selected according to the general characteristics of each region. Despite the fact that

Results

Table 1 provides descriptive statistics for weight, height, BMI and MQ for boys and girls of different age groups.

Motor coordination results show clear MC gender differences with boys outperforming girls at every age. According to normative values of KTK test battery,17 results indicated low to moderate MC, especially for girls, across all ages. The results for girls were indicative of “moderate motor disorder”. For boys the results were at the lower ranges of “normal coordination”, except for

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between BMI and MC (as measured by the KTK assessment) in children, ages 6–14 years. The present study demonstrated low to moderate negative correlations between MC and BMI across age. Data also indicate markedly poorer MC for overweight and obese children of both sexes compared to normal weight children. Overall, these data agree with most other data that demonstrate an inverse relationship between childhood body weight status and

Conclusion

These data support the majority of cross-sectional data that indicate MC is inversely associated with BMI, and that the strength of the inverse relation increases during childhood in both genders. Overweight and obese children showed markedly worse MC levels. Despite the limitation of the cross-sectional design, MC showed to be an important, yet dynamic, correlate of weight status.

Practical implications

  • Observations from this study highlight the potential importance of promoting motor coordination in children to alleviate increasing obesity trajectories across childhood.

  • The increasing negative correlations between motor coordination and body mass index across childhood suggests there is a need to allocate appropriate time for play and directed learning experiences that will allow for the development of motor coordination. Providing adequate directed learning experiences, time for play and a

Acknowledgments

Part of the data of the present study was collected with the financial support of the Department of Physical Educational and Sports and the Department of Science and Technology of Autonomic Government of Azores Region (Direcção Regional de Educação Física e Desporto e Direcção Regional da Ciência e Tecnologia da Região Autónoma dos Açores), Portugal.

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