Diferença no comportamento motor das crianças durante o recreio escolar em função do estado ponderal

Abstract

Obesity has become one of the major public health problems and the decrease in physical activity has been related to the expansion of this problem. Overweight or obese children may present less involvement in physical activity, which highlights the moment of school play, and impairments in motor behavior. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the differences in the motor behavior of the children during the recreation as a function of their weight status. For this, an exploratory descriptive study was carried out with a cross – sectional design. Sixty-three children of both sexes, aged between five and 10 years, enrolled in the Curitiba municipal school system were evaluated. Measurements of height and body mass were obtained for the calculation of body mass index (BMI). The children were classified into three weight categories, according to BMI values (normal weight, overweight and obese). In order to evaluate the motor behavior of the children during the recess, a script of direct observation about the behavior, of own authorship, was used. Each child was evaluated during a week (five recess), where it was observed: social aspects, physical aspects and general aspects. All calculations were performed in the statistical software SPSS, version 25.0. The mean weight difference between normoponderal and obese was 14.62 kg. Regarding the results, 87% of children with normal weight, 90.5% of overweight children and all obese children play in groups in almost every playground of the week. As for the frequency of children who remain predominantly seated during most of the recess, 21.1% of obese children participate in recess, while less than 5% of overweight and normal weight children have the same behavior. In relation to the frequency of sports practice, there was low adherence among schoolchildren, namely 23.8% of overweight schoolchildren, 21.7% of normoponderal students, and 15.8% of obese students. The number of children who use some object during play seems to be more significant among the obese, about 73.7%, while 33.3% of overweight and 21.7% of normoponderal children had this behavior. It is concluded, therefore, that the children show similar motor behaviors, independent of the ponderal state, except for the frequency of children who remain seated, showing the importance of having materials available during the recess, not being obligatory to use them, to stimulate greater movement and physical activity.