Motor development according to nutritional status in preschoolers

Abstract

The objective of the study was to compare motor development according to nutritional status in children aged 3 to 5 belonging to “JUNJI” nursery schools from Valparaíso, Chile. It is a descriptive study with a non-probabilistic sample for convenience, composed of 136 preschoolers (girls n=70 and boys n=66) with a mean age of 3.67 ± 0.40 years. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated based on the formula extracted from weight and height, expressed in kg/m2 and nutritional status was classified based on international indications described by the World Health Organization (WHO). Motor development was identified and classified with the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2). A comparative analysis was performed according to gender and nutritional status. Preschoolers tested mainly between the levels of motor development “very poor”, “poor”, “low average” and “average”. No preschooler was placed at the “very high” level. No significant differences were found according to gender and nutritional status for the motor development variable. Girls in overweight/ obesity categories showed a lower motor development than girls in low weight/normal weight categories, a situation that was not shown among boys.