EFECTOS DE LA ACTIVIDAD FÍSICA SOBRE EL INDICE DE MASA CORPORAL EN ADOLESCENTES DE 14 A 16 AÑOS. COLEGIO LICEO NAVAL.QUITO 2014

Abstract

In Ecuador, between 1986 and 2012, overweight/obesity cases increased by 104%, affecting 35% of the population. The province of Pichincha presented 26% of affected adolescents. Objectives: To determine if the level of physical activity (PA) affects the Body Mass Index (BMI) in adolescents (14-16 years) attending “Liceo Naval” in Quito, Ecuador. Methodology: Simple randomization was employed to select the cases used to carry out cross-sectional study with 92 consecutive cases presenting overweight/obesity and 92 cases presenting a normal BMI. BMI was interpreted according to the Anthropometric and Nutritional Indicators Calculator for children and adolescents (5-19 years) of the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador (MSP, in its Spanish acronym). To estimate the PA level, the Physician-based Assessment and Counseling for Exercise (PACE) and the Comparative PA Scale were used. The statistical analysis was carried out with the Mann-Whitney U test, Student's t test and the MLE-Odds Ratio, considering a significance level of 0.05. Results: The average number of days of PA among children with high BMI was lower than that of children with normal BMI (2.72 ± 1.252 vs. 5.01 ± 1.153) (tvalue = 12.924, P 0.000). Responses such as “much less” or “a little less” PA than that of a friend were more frequent in children with high BMI (60% and 91% respectively), (Z-value = -7,510, P 0.000). The risk of overweight/obesity increases with <5 days of PA, (OR 52,559, 95% CI 22,205 - 134,952)