Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries

Clarice Martins; Vicente  Romo-Perez; E. Kipling Webster; Michael Duncan; Luís Filipe Lemos; Amanda E. Staiano; Anthony Okely; Daniele Magistro; Fabio Carlevaro; Farid Bardid; Francesca Magno; Glauber C. Nobre; Isaac Estevan; Jorge Mota; Ke Ning; Leah E. Robinson; Matthieu Lenoir; Minghui Quan; Nadia C. Valentini; Penny Cross; Rachel Jones; Rafael  Henrique; Si-Tong Chen; Yucui Diao; Paulo R. Bandeira; Lisa M. Barnett

doi:10.1007/s40279-023-01929-7

Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries

Clarice Martins, Vicente Romo-Perez, E. Kipling Webster, Michael Duncan, Luís Filipe Lemos, Amanda E. Staiano, Anthony Okely, Daniele Magistro, Fabio Carlevaro, Farid Bardid, Francesca Magno, Glauber C. Nobre, Isaac Estevan, Jorge Mota, Ke Ning, Leah E. Robinson, Matthieu Lenoir, Minghui Quan, Nadia C. Valentini, Penny CrossRachel Jones, Rafael Henrique, Si-Tong Chen, Yucui Diao, Paulo R. Bandeira, Lisa M. Barnett

Centre for Physical Activity, Sport and Exercise Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

11 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background and Objective: One in five preschool children are overweight/obese, and increased weight status over time increases the risks of poorer future health. Motor skill competence (MC) may be a protective factor - giving children the ability to participate in health enhancing physical activity. Yet we do not know when the relationship between motor competence and weight status first emerges or whether it is evident across the body mass index (BMI) spectrum. This study examined the association between MC and BMI in a multi-country sample of 5545 preschoolers (54.36 ± 9.15 months of age; 50.5% boys) from eight countries.

Methods: Quantile regression analyses were used to explore the associations between MC (assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development -2nd/3rd edition), and quantiles of BMI (15th; 50th; 85th; and 97th percentiles), adjusted for sex, age in months, and country.

Results: Negative associations of locomotor skills, ball skills, and overall MC with BMI percentiles (p < .005) were seen, which became stronger at the higher end of the BMI distribution (97th percentile). Regardless of sex, for each raw score point increase in locomotor skills, ball skills and overall MC scores, BMI is reduced by 8.9%, 6.8%, and 5.1%, respectively, for those preschoolers at the 97th BMI percentile onwards.

Conclusions: Public health policies should position MC as critical for children´s obesity prevention from early childhood onwards. Robust longitudinal and experimental designs are encouraged to explore a possible causality pathway between MC and BMI from early childhood.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	505-516
Number of pages	12
Journal	Sports Medicine
Volume	54
Issue number	2
Early online date	25 Sept 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01929-7
Publication status	Published - Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.

Funder

Funding for the original projects was obtained by the following co-authors: DM, FC and FM were supported by the Fondo Assistenza e Benessere S.M.S (FAB), Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti, Polo Universitario Asti Studi Superiori (UNI-Astiss) and Citta` di Asti for the “Benessere in Gioco” project. ML and FB were supported for the Multimove for Kids project by the Flemish Government. IE was supported by the Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital (project APE/2021/013). AES and LKW were supported by NIH NICHD R21HD095035; Gulf States-HPC from the NIHMD NIH (U54MD008602), P30DK072476, U54GM104940, and the LSU Biomedical Collaborative Research Program. LER was partially supported by the National Institutes of Health under the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1R01HL132979). AO, PC, and RJ were supported by The Australian Data from New South Wales, using funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1062433). LMB accessed data from The Melbourne INFANT Program follow-ups that were funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant (GNT1008879). PRB was supported by the Scholarship Program for Productivity in Research and Stimulus to Interiorization and Technological Innovation—BPI (04–2022).

Funding

Funding for the original projects was obtained by the following co-authors: DM, FC and FM were supported by the Fondo Assistenza e Benessere S.M.S (FAB), Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti, Polo Universitario Asti Studi Superiori (UNI-Astiss) and Citta` di Asti for the “Benessere in Gioco” project. ML and FB were supported for the Multimove for Kids project by the Flemish Government. IE was supported by the Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital (project APE/2021/013). AES and LKW were supported by NIH NICHD R21HD095035; Gulf States-HPC from the NIHMD NIH (U54MD008602), P30DK072476, U54GM104940, and the LSU Biomedical Collaborative Research Program. LER was partially supported by the National Institutes of Health under the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1R01HL132979). AO, PC, and RJ were supported by The Australian Data from New South Wales, using funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1062433). LMB accessed data from The Melbourne INFANT Program follow-ups that were funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant (GNT1008879). PRB was supported by the Scholarship Program for Productivity in Research and Stimulus to Interiorization and Technological Innovation—BPI (04–2022).

Funders	Funder number
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Carpi
Polo Universitario Asti Studi Superiori
Citta` di Asti
Flemish Government
Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, Generalitat Valenciana	APE/2021/013
National Institutes of Health	R21HD095035, U54MD008602, P30DK072476, U54GM104940, 1R01HL132979
Louisiana State University
National Health and Medical Research Council	APP1062433, GNT1008879

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

Martins, C., Romo-Perez, V., Webster, E. K., Duncan, M., Lemos, L. F., Staiano, A. E., Okely, A., Magistro, D., Carlevaro, F., Bardid, F., Magno, F., Nobre, G. C., Estevan, I., Mota, J., Ning, K., Robinson, L. E., Lenoir, M., Quan, M., Valentini, N. C., ... Barnett, L. M. (2024). Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries. Sports Medicine, 54(2), 505-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01929-7

Martins, C, Romo-Perez, V, Webster, EK, Duncan, M, Lemos, LF, Staiano, AE, Okely, A, Magistro, D, Carlevaro, F, Bardid, F, Magno, F, Nobre, GC, Estevan, I, Mota, J, Ning, K, Robinson, LE, Lenoir, M, Quan, M, Valentini, NC, Cross, P, Jones, R, Henrique, R, Chen, S-T, Diao, Y, Bandeira, PR & Barnett, LM 2024, 'Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries', Sports Medicine, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 505-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01929-7

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Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funder

Funding

UN SDGs

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