Abstract
This study investigated the associations between biological and environmental factors and gross-motor coordination (GMC) in Peruvian children and adolescents. The sample comprised 7401 boys and girls, aged 6–14 years, recruited from three geographical regions: sea-level, Amazon and high-altitude. Biological variables included age, sex, height, BMI, physical fitness, stunting, and maturational status. Environmental influences included geographical region and school characteristics. Gross-motor coordination was tested with the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder and the data analyzed by multilevel logistic regression. Results showed a high prevalence of below normal GMC scores. Sex, age, geographical area, biological maturation, BMI (normal versus overweight/obesity), and stunting were all significant predictors of GMC. There was also an interaction between age, sex, and geographical area indicating that older girls who lived at sea-level and high-altitude were more likely to display below normal GMC scores. The school context was less important in predicting GMC problems than the interplay between biological characteristics and geographical region. These results suggest that early identification, as well as educational and pediatric care interventions, are of importance in reducing below normal GMC among Peruvian children and adolescents.
Highlights
This study investigated the associations between biological and environmental factors and grossmotor coordination (GMC) in Peruvian children and adolescents
The aims of this study were to expand the previous work of our research group[12, 27] and address the following questions: (1) Are age, sex and geographical areas associated with children and adolescents’ below normal GMC during childhood and adolescence? (2) Do age-by-sex, age-by-geographical area, and sex-by-geographical area interactions predict below normal GMC? (3) Do age-by-sex-by-geographical area interactions predict below normal GMC? (4) What are the impacts of child-level characteristics on the likelihood of below normal GMC? And, (5) Do school-level variables influence below normal GMC? We hypothesized that age, sex, child and school level characteristic’s, geographical regions and their interactions would be associated with below normal GMC
We believe that the uniqueness of the present study is in the examination of the interactions between individual and environmental characteristics in explaining the presence of below normal GMC scores during childhood
Summary
This study investigated the associations between biological and environmental factors and grossmotor coordination (GMC) in Peruvian children and adolescents. There was an interaction between age, sex, and geographical area indicating that older girls who lived at sea-level and high-altitude were more likely to display below normal GMC scores. It has been reported that GMC levels vary substantially among children and adolescents, and that individual demographics, biological variables (e.g., age, sex, body mass index, physical fitness, gestational age), socioeconomic status, parental education, number of siblings, or birth order and environmental characteristics (e.g., time spent outdoors in playing spaces, parents’ physical activity and family interactions), are modulating factors[15,16,17]. Barnett et al.[11] showed inconsistent results regarding the influence of socioeconomic status on GMC These findings were like those of Niemistö et al.[19] who studied children from three geographical regions of Finland, scattered. 6–10 years 11–14 years Girls Boys Sea-level High-altitude Amazon region Non-stunted Stunted Normal weight Overweight/obese Low Medium High
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