Motor deficits - how important are they? Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence

Background. Overweight and obesity in childhood are increasing in frequency throughout the developed world. Besides lack of physical inactivity, other important factors in childhood obesity are lower socio-economic status, genetic predisposition and high caloric intake. We therefore checked for an association between motor abilities of children and adolescents attending three secondary schools and their BMI classification. Methods. Anthropometric data on 831 boys and 808 girls (grades 5-10) were assessed, and the BMI of each pupil was calculated and classified. Strength (push-ups, sit-ups, standing long jump), endurance (6-min run), flexibility (sit and reach) and coordination (lateral jumping, standing on one -leg) were determined by means of the Dordel-Koch test. The mean age of the pupils was 13.5 (+/- 1.8) years; their mean weight, 52.7 (+/- 14,2) kg; mean height, 1.61 (+/- 0.12) in; and mean BMI, 20.1 (+/- 3.8) kg/m(2). We found that 6.9% of the pupils were obese, 10.4% were overweight, 73.8% were normal in weight and 8.9% were underweight. Results. The overweight and obese children and adolescents had poorer results for strength, endurance and coordination (p<0.001 in each case when adjusted forage, gender, height where appropriate, and type of school), but not for flexibility. Conclusion. Overweight and obese children show deficits in physical performance, and specifically in strength, endurance and coordination. The clinical implications of these findings are not yet known. Motor deficits certainly lead to a situation where attempts to play sports can be frustrating and to a preference for sedentary pastimes, however. Appropriate specific and early countermeasures are therefore absolutely essential.