Abstract
A pratica de atividades fisicas (AF) na infância tem papel decisivo no desenvolvimento motor e prevencao da obesidade infantil. Evidencias disponiveis sugerem que ha elevada prevalencia de baixos niveis de AF em criancas, mas pouco se conhece sobre o nivel de AF em pre-escolares. O objetivo do estudo foi identificar a prevalencia e os fatores associados ao nivel de AF em pre-escolares. Estudo transversal realizado em escolas privadas da Cidade de Olinda (PE), com coleta de dados mediante entrevista a face com os pais das criancas. Participaram do estudo 265 criancas (54,3% meninas) com idade media de 4,9 anos (DP=0,8). Foram consideradas expostas a nivel de AF as criancas que nao realizavam, no minimo, 60 minutos/dia de AF ao ar livre. A analise dos dados foi efetuada mediante regressao logistica, considerando o nivel de AF como desfecho. Os resultados mostram que 65,3% (IC95%: 9,4-70,8) das criancas foram classificadas como expostas a baixo nivel de Analises permitiram identificar que maior escolaridade paterna (OR=2,41; IC95%: 1,13-5,10), falta de espacos para jogos e brincadeiras na residencia (OR=2,36; IC95%: 1,17-4,78) e estudar em periodo vespertino (OR=2,92; IC95%: 1,55-5,49) ou integral (OR=57,1; IC95%: 6,57-496,2) foram fatores associados a nivel de AF. Maior numero de filhos foi identificado como fator de protecao em relacao a nivel de AF (OR=0,49; IC95%: 0,26-0,93). Pode-se concluir que a proporcao de criancas expostas a nivel de AF e alta em comparacao aos estudos congeneres e fatores parentais e ambientais estao associados ao nivel de atividade fisica na idade pre-escolar.
Highlights
Studies have shown that physical inactivity in childhood is linked to various health-risk conditions in adulthood[1,2]
Eight questionnaires were excluded after the phase of entering data, because the age of subjects was less than 4 years old
The development of the present study provided some important findings: the prevalence of preschool children exposed to low level of physical activity is high, affecting, approximately, two out of three children; two parental factors are significantly associated with the level of physical activity of the children; lack of outdoor play areas at home is a risk factor for low level of physical activity; and the children studying in the afternoon or full-time are exposed to greater risk compared to those studying in the morning
Summary
Studies have shown that physical inactivity in childhood is linked to various health-risk conditions in adulthood[1,2]. Low levels of physical activity are among the possible determinants of childhood obesity[3,4]. A recent study by Tanha et al.[5] showed that a low level of moderate to vigorous physical activity is significantly related to higher rates of cardiovascular risk in children from 8 to 11 years old. Besides its connection with acute and chronic health outcomes, lack of physical activity in childhood may be associated with physical inactivity in adolescence and adult life. The time preschoolers spend in sedentary activities (watching TV, playing video game) is associated to negative health outcomes, such as overweight and obesity in older ages[9,10]. The practice of physical activity at this stage of life seems to have an effect on bone mineral density, motor performance and on psychosocial factors, such as self-esteem and self-image, among others[11]
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