How Healthy Is Homeschool? An Analysis of Body Composition and Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Public school children regularly participate in school-based physical activity, physical education, and fitness testing. However, almost 2 million American children are homeschooled. The purpose of this research was to assess the body composition of elementary school-aged homeschool children and their corresponding cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

This research explored the body composition and CVD risk of 145 homeschool children aged 5-11 years using body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, and waist circumference. Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests examined differences in CVD risk within the homeschool population.

Overall, homeschool children had average BMI z-scores (SD [range]) with a mean of -0.11 (0.97 [-3.47 to 2.53]). Unhealthy classifications were seen in 11.2% of the sample by BMI, 19.6% by percent body fat, and 49.7% by waist circumference. Statistical analysis revealed no difference in CVD risk between sexes (χ² (1) = 0.062, p = .804) or ethnicities (χ² (1) = 0.927, p = .336) but increased prevalence in children aged 5-9 years (U = 1427, z = -4.559, p < .001).

Almost half of elementary school-aged homeschool children showed increased risk for CVD and need regular assessment of central adiposity.