Relation Between Percent Body Fat and Fundamental Motor Skills in Pre-School Children age 3-6 years

• Main Authors: Martin Musalek, Jakub Kokstejn, Pavel Papez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Montenegrin Sports Academy and Faculty for Sport and Physical Education 2017-06-01
• Series: Sport Mont
• Subjects: fundamental motor skills; MABC-2; motor performance; pre-school chidren; adipose tissue; fat
• Online Access: http://www.sportmont.ucg.ac.me/clanci/SM_jun_2017_Musalek.pdf

It is quite well known that excessive body fat in children is interpreted as a marker of inhibited physical activity and motor performance. This study aimed to establish whether severe impairment of fundamental motor skills (defined as performance under 5th centile of norms) will be significantly more frequently identified in pre-schoolers age 3-6 years with amount of body fat higher than 85th centile of norms. Research sample consisted of 496 (females=241, males=255) pre-schoolers selected from specific district of Prague, Czech Republic. The MABC-2 was used for the assesment fundamental motor skills. Equations for body fat estimation in children identified 35.8% children with body fat˃85th centile of norms, 61.7% within 15th–85th centile, and 2.5% of children˂15th centile of norms. Results revealed that children whose body fat was higher than 85th centile of norms or lower than 15th centile had double the frequency of severe motor problems. Interestingely on the other hand we found no signficant differences in the frequency of high above average performances˃90th centile in MABC-2 between fat 8.4% and non fat children 10.7%. We suggest that amount of body fat is not a clear predictor for the degree of fundamental motor skills.