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Is body fat mass associated with worse gross motor skills in preschoolers? An exploratory study

Juliana Nogueira Pontes Nobre1, Rosane Luzia De Souza Morais1, Amanda Cristina Fernandes1

  • 1Centro Integrado de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Saúde (CIPq-Saúde), Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Plos One
|March 9, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Overweight preschoolers showed poorer locomotor skills compared to their healthy-weight peers. Excess body fat, not physical activity, was linked to these reduced gross motor skills in children.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Motor Development
  • Obesity Research

Background:

  • Childhood obesity is a growing concern impacting overall health.
  • Motor competence is crucial for children's physical activity and development.
  • Understanding factors affecting motor skills in preschoolers is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare motor competence in overweight/obese versus eutrophic preschoolers.
  • To determine if excess body fat explains gross motor skill deficits.
  • To investigate the relationship between body fat and locomotor skills.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional quantitative study with 48 preschoolers.
  • Groups: eutrophic and overweight/obese.
  • Assessed motor competence using standardized tests, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

  • Overweight/obese preschoolers had significantly lower Locomotor subtest scores.
  • Object Control subtest and Gross Motor Quotient scores were similar between groups.
  • Excess body fat explained 12% of the variance in locomotor skills.

Conclusions:

  • Excess body fat is associated with poorer locomotor skills in preschoolers.
  • This association persists even when controlling for physical activity and environmental factors.
  • Body composition plays a role in gross motor development in early childhood.

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