Tokmakidis Savvas P, Kasambalis Athanasios, Christodoulos Antonios D
Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, 69100, Greece.
Eur J Pediatr. 2006 Dec;165(12):867-74. doi: 10.1007/s00431-006-0176-2. Epub 2006 Jun 15.
The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to provide estimates for overweight and obesity in a sample of Greek schoolchildren and to determine their possible relation with selected motor and health-related fitness parameters.
The study sample consisted of 709 healthy children (328 girls, 381 boys, mean age = 8.9+/-1.6 years), living in the towns of Agios Stefanos (approximately 12,000 citizens) and Alexandroupolis (approximately 60,000 citizens), Greece. All pupils underwent anthropometric, motor and cardiovascular fitness assessments (Eurofit test battery). The body mass index (BMI) cut-off points adopted by the International Obesity Task Force were utilized for the assessment of overweight and obesity.
59.4% of the participants had a normal BMI, 25.8% were overweight and 14.8% were obese, without significant differences between genders.
In general, the higher BMI categories were strongly associated with inferior performances in all fitness tests, except flexibility. This graded relationship was consistent for both boys and girls, although the statistical relationship between BMI categories and fitness performance varied by gender.
In conclusion, the findings of the current study offer some support to the reported high prevalence of childhood obesity in Greece and suggest that overweight and obesity are limiting factors for fitness performance in primary schoolchildren. The present data suggest that interventions promoting children's health should, ideally, begin early in life and involve measures that simultaneously improve fitness and lower fatness.
本横断面研究旨在对希腊学童样本中的超重和肥胖情况进行评估，并确定其与选定的运动及健康相关体能参数之间的可能关系。
研究样本包括709名健康儿童（328名女孩，381名男孩，平均年龄 = 8.9±1.6岁），他们生活在希腊的圣斯特凡诺斯镇（约12000名居民）和亚历山德鲁波利斯镇（约60000名居民）。所有学生都接受了人体测量、运动和心血管体能评估（欧洲体能测试组合）。采用国际肥胖特别工作组采用的体重指数（BMI）切点来评估超重和肥胖情况。
59.4%的参与者BMI正常，25.8%超重，14.8%肥胖，男女之间无显著差异。
总体而言，除柔韧性外，较高的BMI类别与所有体能测试中的较差表现密切相关。这种分级关系在男孩和女孩中都是一致的，尽管BMI类别与体能表现之间的统计关系因性别而异。
总之，本研究结果为希腊儿童肥胖症高发的报道提供了一些支持，并表明超重和肥胖是小学生体能表现的限制因素。目前的数据表明，促进儿童健康的干预措施理想情况下应在生命早期开始，并包括同时提高体能和降低肥胖程度的措施。
