Parent Observation of Preschool Child Activity

Abstract

Lack of physical activity has been identified as a predictor of obesity in U.S. children. According to a 2004 report from the Institute of Medicine, the incidence of obesity in preschool children, aged 2–5 years, has more than doubled from 5 to 10.4% in the last three decades. PURPOSE: To examine the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to determine the association between body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) and physical activity in preschool children. METHODS: Data from 582 children, ages 2–5 years, from the NHANES 1999 and 2002 data sets were combined and analyzed. Children were categorized by BMI as denned by the 2000 CDC growth charts for age (2 to 20 years) and gender. Normal weight (NW) children were categorized as < 85th percentile; “at risk” of overweight (ROW) between the 85th and the 95th percentiles; and overweight (OW) at or above the 95th percentile on the growth charts. Physical activity level was based upon the question “How many times per week does play or exercise make your son/daughter sweat and breathe hard?” A multinomial logistic regression was used to determine if the amount of physical activity differed among the three categories of body fatness in preschool-aged children. Significance was established at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Overweight preschool children were identified by parents/guardians as participating in a significantly greater amount of physical activity (7.60 ± 4.93 times per week) compared to NW preschool children (6.08 ± 4.13 times per week). No significant difference in physical activity was observed between NW and ROW preschool children. CONCLUSIONS: BMI was positively related to the amount of physical activity in overweight compared to normal weight preschool children. This was based upon the definition of physical activity as the number of times (per week) that parents/guardians observed their preschool children to sweat and breathe hard. This result is counter to the typical finding that greater amounts of physical activity correlate with more optimal BMI, thus leading to questions about the validity of this particular NHANES measure of physical activity.