THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND BODY COMPOSITION OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the connection between the level of physical activity and body composition among school-age children. The sample of participants included 479 students, 250 boys and 229 girls, school-age children, with an average age of 12,5±1,08. Their level of physical activity was evaluated using the FELS PAQ questionnaire, while their body composition was evaluated using the BIA method. To determine a connection between the group of predictor variables and the criterion variables, a canonical correlation analysis was used. The obtained results indicated that there is a positive correlation between the level of physical activity and the parameters of body composition, both for the sample of school-age boys (p= .002), and the sample of girls (p= .048). It could be concluded that the participants who were physically more active scored lower values for Body Fat and BMI, that is, higher values for Muscle Mass and Lean Body Mass.

Keywords

• physical activity
• body composition
• elementary school
• children