Relationship Of Sport Participation And Sport/Energy Drink Consumption To BMI In K-6 Children

Abstract

Continued increase in sport participation, and greater availability of sport/energy drinks for the intended benefit of athletic performance has led to a concern of overuse by younger individuals. Sport drink consumption has been shown to rise above 30% in sixth graders over recent years. Limited information is available regarding the amount of sport participation and sport drink consumption relative to body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) in children. PURPOSE: To determine if there is a relationship between sport participation and consumption of sport/energy drinks to body mass index in 5-12 year old children from rural elementary schools. METHODS: Data was collected via a 20-item questionnaire from parents of children in grades K-6 from two rural schools in Central New York. Height (meters) and weight (kg) measures of the children were used to the calculate BMI. BMI was defined 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. A Chi-square analysis was then utilized to determine if BMI stratifications were related to sport participation and sport/energy drink consumption during sports and at home for elementary school children. Significance was established at p < 0.05. RESULTS: One hundred four questionnaires were completed and 55 female students (7.62 + 2.13 years) and 49 male students (7.61 + 1.91 years) were measured. Twenty-nine percent (%) of the children who participated in school sports were OW which equally reflected the same % of OW students in the school population. Twenty-two % of OW consumed sport drinks during sport activity, and 32.3% of OW consumed sport drinks at home. However, no significant relationships were found between amount and type of sport participation nor sport/energy drink consumption and BMI. CONCLUSION: BMI is not significantly correlated to amount or type of sport participation, nor amount or type of sport/energy drink consumption in elementary school children aged 5-12 years. However, an important finding was that sport drink consumption was not significantly higher in overweight compared to normal weight children in a rural school setting.