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Cardiovascular Response of an Acute Exergame Session in Prepubertal Obese Children
Herikson Araújo Costa1, Antonio Carlos Silva-Filho2, Carlos José Dias1,2
11 Department of Physical Education, Universidade Federal do Maranhão , Campus Pinheiro, Brazil .
Purpose:
We aimed to analyze the acute autonomic response of obese and eutrophic prepubertal boys to an exergame (EXG) session.
Materials And Method:
Nine eutrophic (8.89 ± 2.71 years of age and 16.42% ± 6.30% body fat) and nine obese boys (8.70 ± 1.16 years of age and 40.76% ± 4.2% body fat) participated. Nutritional state was determined using World Health Organization guidelines. Variables were collected at rest, immediately post (IP), and 60 minutes after a 20 minutes EXG session. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity was assessed using heart rate variability in time and frequency domains, and data were analyzed using Shapiro-Wilk and ANOVA tests with Tukey post hoc.
Results:
The obese group demonstrated an increased sympathetic activity at rest when compared with the eutrophic group (P < 0.05). The obese group also demonstrated an increased parasympathetic activity 60 minutes after the EXG session when compared with the eutrophic group (P < 0.05).
Conclusion:
We concluded that an acute session of EXG promoted ANS super compensation. We encourage research on chronic ANS response to EXG.
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