Changes in Motor Performance and BMI of Primary School Children over Time–Influence of the COVID-19 Confinement and Social Burden

Stefanie Wessely, Nina Ferrari, David Friesen, Martin Grauduszus, Marlen Klaudius and Christine Joisten
Additional contact information
Stefanie Wessely: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Nina Ferrari: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany
David Friesen: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Martin Grauduszus: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Marlen Klaudius: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Christine Joisten: Department for Physical Activity in Public Health, Institute of Movement and Neurosciences, German Sport University Cologne, Am Sportpark Müngersdorf 6, 50933 Cologne, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical inactivity and being overweight increased in children, especially those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Additionally, a decrease in motor performance has been increasingly reported; however, there is a lack of meaningful data on the relationship between these findings and socioeconomic status. Therefore, we examined the BMI, BMI z score, the prevalence of overweight/obesity, and motor performance (based on lateral jumping, the standing long jump, and the 6-min run) among three cohorts from timelines before (2016) and during the pandemic (2020, 2021), using a cohort sequential design. Our analysis revealed that all parameters examined showed a significant negative trend over time. For children with a low social burden, the trend was statistically detectable only for lateral jumping and the 6-min run. For children with a high social burden, the prevalence of overweight/obesity increased from 4.2% to 5.4% between 2016 and 2021. The prevalence of being underweight also increased from 3.4% to 4.3% during this time. Motor performance decreased from 11.3% to 12.3%, except in the standing long jump. Children with a high social burden showed significantly lower results (7.4% to 9.6%). Thus, our data confirm an increase in both measurements of overweight/obesity and underweight, as well as a decrease in motor performance under the pandemic conditions, especially in children from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds. These findings affirm the urgent need for action regarding health promotion measures, especially for children with high social burdens.

Keywords: COVID-19-confinement; BMI; motor performance; social burden; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4565/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4565/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4565-:d:790800

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().