Physical activity and physical development of school age children

Abstract

The aim of the research: to study physical activity of school age children and its influence on their physical development and adaptive possibilities of the cardiovascular system.
Materials and methods. 290 children in age 10–17 were examined: pupils of 5–11th classes of two schools in Kharkiv. There were 141 boys and 149 girls. Anthropometry was carried out, physical activity was studied using the questionnaire of PAQ-C (The Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children), physical activity tolerance was assessed using the Ruffie's test.
Results. It has been established that dysgarmonic physical development was observed in 24.18% of children 11–16 years old, mainly due to excessive body weight (10.25%) and body weight deficiency (9.84%). Obesity was found in 4.10% of children. Low body weight, excessive body weight and obesity were observed predominantly in children 11–12 years old, regardless of sex. Boys aged 14 to 16 years are also characterized by increased number of patients with excessive body weight and obesity. In general, 58.3±2.9% of children had low physical activity during the week. Between the ages of 11 and 17 (from 5 to 11 class), from 45% to 88%, the number of boys and girls with hypodynamia increases. Low physical activity was accompanied by decreased tolerance to physical activity in children with different levels of physical development. At the same time, the highest correlation coefficient was observed in children with low body weight (r=0.659; p<0.02). Most boys had satisfactory adaptive capabilities of the heart. Reduced tolerance to physical activity was observed in 20.83% of boys with excessive body weight, as well as in 28.57% with harmonious physical development. Among girls, 53.85% with overweight and 42.37% with normal body weight had low tolerance to physical activity. Children's body weight deficiency was also often accompanied by a reduction in adaptive capacity: 57.14% of boys and 54.55% of girls with low body weight had lower tolerance to physical activity. Unsatisfactory results of the Ruffie’s test in 89% of cases were shown by children with low physical activity.
Conclusion. Physical activity and physical development of children affect the adaptive capacity of the growing organism. Adequate physical activity supports satisfactory adaptive capacity parameters, which was observed in most overweight boys.
The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee (LEC) of all institutions.