| Obesity
in childhood is increasing worldwide. To combat overweight and obesity
in childhood, the school-based Children's Health InterventionaL Trial
(CHILT) project combines health education and physical activity. This
paper examines the effect of intervention on the body mass index (BMI)
and motor abilities after 20.8 ± 1.0 months in 12 randomly selected
primary schools compared with 5 randomly selected control schools.
The anthropometric data were assessed, BMI was calculated. Coordination
was determined by lateral jumping and endurance performance by a 6-minute
run. No difference in the prevalence of overweight and obesity was
found between the intervention (IS) and control schools (CS) either
at baseline or following intervention (each p > 0.05). The increase
in the number of lateral jumps was significantly higher in the IS
than in the CS (p < 0.001). For the 6-minute run the increase in
distance run was significantly improved in IS (p = 0.020). All variables
were controlled for gender and age. Overweight and obese children
in both IS and CS produced significantly lower scores in coordination
and endurance tasks than normal and underweight children during both
examinations (each p < 0.001), adjusted for gender and age.
Preventive intervention in primary schools offers an effective means
to improve motor skills in childhood and to break through the vicious
circle of physical inactivity - motor deficits - frustration - increasing
inactivity possibly combined with an excess energy intake and weight
gain. To prevent overweight and obesity these measures have to be
intensified.
KEY
WORDS: Health education, children, obesity, inactivity, physical
performance.
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