Relationship of BMI on the agility and strength skills of six-to-eightyear-old learners in the north west province of South Africa: the perffit study

BMI influences motor components that children use in physical and sport-related activities. This study aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between BMI and running speed- and agility and strength skills. This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted as part of the PERF-FIT research study. Ninety-seven learners, between the ages of six-to-eight-year-old part take in this study. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT-2) was used as a measuring instrument that provided information on the running speed- and agility and strength skills. A Spearman correlation and partial correlation as well asa oneway variance analysis (ANOVA’s) with a Tukey Post Hoc test was used to analyse the data. Statistical significance with moderate positive correlation was found in the whole group’s running speed- and agility for the shuttle run (r=0.47, p=0.001). Furthermore, statistical significance with a trivial negative correlation was found in one-legged stationary hop (r=-0.31, p=0.002) and one-legged side hop (r=-0.22, p=0.032). For the whole group’s strength skills, while statistical significance with small negative correlation were found with knee push-ups (r=-0.20, p=0.046) and v-ups (r=-0.20, p=0.052). However, trivial negative correlations were reported for the whole group. In the overall group 4.1% (n=4) were underweight, 76.3% (n=74) were normal weight, 10.3% (n=10) were overweight, and 9.3% (n=9) were obese. BMI was found to have a small negative correlation with six-to-eight-year-olds’ running speedand agility, and strength skills. This data can be utilized to construct more age-specific intervention programs focused at improving speedand agility and strength skills development, as well as lowering BMI in preparation for later sport- specific skills.

Acessar