ORIGINAL ARTICLE  BODY COMPOSITION, NUTRITION AND SUPPLEMENTATION 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2019 March;59(3):440-8

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08136-7

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Physical fitness characteristics of Omani primary school children according to body mass index

Anne DELEXTRAT ¹ ✉, Lawrence D. HAYES ², Samia S. AL GHANNAMI ³, Yoeju MIN ⁴, Izzeldin HUSSEIN ³, Hamed AL OUFI ⁵, Daniel D. COHEN ⁶, Kebreab GHEBREMESKEL ⁴

¹ Department of Sport and Health Science, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK; ² Department of Medical and Sport Sciences, University of Cumbria, Lancaster, UK; ³ Department of Nutrition, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman; ⁴ Lipidomics and Nutrition Research Centre, School of Life Sciences, London Metropolitan University, London, UK; ⁵ Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman; ⁶ Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Santander (UDES), Bucaramanga, Colombia

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that children with high cardiorespiratory fitness and normal body mass index (BMI) have less risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), however limited research was undertaken in Omani children. Therefore the aims of the present study were to describe body composition and physical fitness of a large cohort of Omani school children of both genders, and to investigate the effects of weight status on physical fitness.
METHODS: Three hundred and fourteen Omani school children aged 9 to 10 years old took part in anthropometric assessments, body composition and fitness tests, including handgrip strength, the basketball chest pass, broad jump, 20-m sprint, four 10-m shuttle agility, 30-s sit-up, and multistage fitness test (MSFT).
RESULTS: Obese boys and girls performed worse than normal-weight children in sprint, agility and endurance. In addition, fitness measures in the overweight group and underweight groups were not significantly different from other groups, except a better handgrip strength and poorer MSFT in overweight compared to normal weight girls, and poorer agility performance in underweight girls compared to the three other groups.
CONCLUSIONS: Most fitness measures are lower in obese Omani children, which suggests that they will be more at risk of developing NCDs later in life.

KEY WORDS: Muscle strength - Physical endurance - Child - Adipose tissue