Implicações entre o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor, sobrepeso e obesidade infantil: um estudo exploratório

Abstract

This study aimed to verify the possible associations between neuropsychomotor development in childhood and overweight and obesity in preschool children. For that, 72 children aged from three to six years were evaluated, 35 boys, 37 girls, of médium and medium-low socioeconomic level, coming from a public school, located in a neighborhood near to Uberlândia’s downtown/ MG. Participants were divided in to two groups, the first group (G1) consisting of nine overweightand 27 obese children, and group two (G2) comprised 36 eutrophic children. The instruments used for the evaluation were the following: Body Mass Index (BMI), to measure the nutritional status of children; Psychomotor Battery and the Psychomotor Profile Battery, to measure and identify the psychomotor profile of the participating children. The results indicated that group G2 presented better results in all items compared to group G1, and with significant differences in the tonicity, fine práxis and the sum of the general mean scores of the neuropsychomotor evaluation.