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No Association between Body Composition and Activity Level in Obese Children and Adolescents Due to Low Overall Activity Level
Author(s) -
Holmbäck Ulf,
Berglund Marie,
Forslund Anders
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.lb368
Subject(s) - physical activity , obesity , composition (language) , medicine , association (psychology) , physical activity level , population , demography , sedentary lifestyle , psychology , endocrinology , physical therapy , environmental health , philosophy , linguistics , sociology , psychotherapist
Background Physical activity is known to have positive effects on body composition in the normal population. However, within the pediatric obese population, the impact of physical activity on body composition is less studied. Aim To investigate whether the level of physical activity is associated to body composition and the effect of age and gender. Methods 203 children (87 girls and 116 boys), age range from 4 to 18 yrs, BMI above 30 were studied. The following data were collected 1) body composition = % body fat from BodPod®; 2) basic anthropology; and 3) four‐day activity level = total activity counts and % of time in the different activity categories (sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous) measured with Actical® accelerometers. Data was analyzed with t‐tests and scatterplots. Results Age affected activity pattern; young children were more active than older children. Sedentary and light activity represented more than 80% of the time, and vigorous activity accounted for less than 1% of the time. There were no associations between % body fat and physical activity in the whole sample or after stratification for age and gender. Conclusion We could not find any association between body composition and activity level in obese children and adolescents. Most probably obese do not reach a sufficient level of activity for it to have a positive influence on body composition.