Waist circumference predicts poor motor coordination in Portuguese school children Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • Body fatness may influence motor coordination in young children. We aimed to analyze the relation between motor coordination and waist circumference (WC) and to determine the ability of WC to identify children at risk of poor motor coordination based on receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, in a sample of Portuguese children. Methods: The sample comprised 738 urban school children (45.8% girls), aged 8 to 12 years (mean 10.2=±1.2 years) from North of Portugal. WC was measured with standardize protocols. Motor coordination levels were assessed with the Körperkoordination Test für Kinder (KTK) and children were classified according to age-and sex KTK criteria. For ROC analysis, subjects were classified in two groups: (i) disturbances and insufficiencies of coordination; (ii) normal and good coordination. Results: Linear regres- sion analysis showed that WC was negatively associated with motor coor- dination (B= - 0.553 SE:0.066, p<0.001 in boys and B= - 0.527 SE:0.084, p<0.001 in girls). ROC analysis showed that WC predicted poor motor coordination (AUC: 0.672; 95%CI: 0.623 to 0.717, p<0.001 for boys; AUC: 0.659; 95%CI: 0.606 to 0.710, p<0.001 for girls) with WC cut-off values of 71 cm for boys and of 66 cm for girls. Conclusions: Waist circumference was associated with poor motor coordination. The early identification of children with high waist circumference may be important to implement and develop health-related behaviours as well as to avoid having poor motor coordination.

publication date

  • January 1, 2011