CHARACTERIZATION OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE CHILDREN: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

E.M. Amador Rodero¹, L.P. Montealegre Esmeral¹, M. Cantillo Vizcaino¹, M. Rodriguez Porto¹, D. Montenegro Garcia¹, M. Ruiz Soto¹, T. Pulido Iriarte¹

Background: Obesity is a chronic and multifactorial disease that begins during childhood and adolescence. At global basis, about 10% of school-age children are overweight, that is the reason why the WHO considers obesity as the "Epidemic of the 21st century”. In addition to the widely described health-related implications, complications in motor development have been found, especially in aspects related to the quality of movement, muscle tone, body schema, and time-space representation. The lack of available information constitutes a prioritized sum of actions in order to provide supporting evidence for the formulation of intervention strategies to prevent the appearance of these complications.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the alterations in the motor development of children with overweight and obesity.

Methods: A literature search of the databases was performed. The databases used were PubMed, Scielo, Clinical Key, Dialnet, BVS; the MesH terms were included: childhood obesity, childhood overweight, risk factors, development and growth, normal motor development, motor development disorders and the combination of Boolean search terms AND / OR operators. The articles of descriptive and analytical studies that have been published during 2010 -2019 and those articles that answered the PICOT were selected. PICOT question: What are the motor development alterations in overweight and obese children? Three reviewers extracted data from selected articles in an Excel form, and three other reviewers assessed the quality and presence of bias in the studies.

Results: 422 articles were initially found, filtering by titles and abstracts. A depuration was carried out and articles were excluded due to duplication or not meeting inclusion criteria; 12 articles were finally selected for this study, 6 systematic reviews and 6 cohort studies. The overall risk of bias was considered unclear due to the lack of detailed methodology in the included studies. Evidence showed that obese and overweight children get tired faster and have lower motor performance in balance, running, side running, jumping, catching, throwing, bouncing, and hitting a ball. As well, clumsiness in their movements and inability to voluntarily relax muscles (motor weakness). The literature also revealed the inability of this population to inhibit their movements, as well as the emotion that is linked to these issue (motor instability), difficulties in acquiring the awareness and representation of their body, difficulties in spatial positioning and properly use the body to relate to the environment (body schema / laterality disorders).

Conclusion(s): Obesity and overweight carries complications in motor development that can affect the academic performance of school-age children and even their quality of life. Among the most frequent complications, physical activity resistance is commonly found and included motor clumsiness, difficulty to control the muscle tone and the construction of the body scheme.

Implications: The findings and results of this study allow the physiotherapists to enhance their role as a health professional with the ability to generate plans for the control and prevention of complications derived from obesity and overweight in children throughout strategies such as directed physical activity or implement physical activity within the school environment.

Funding, acknowledgements: Special thanks to Universidad Libre´s Physiotherapy program, and to Generación Vida Nueva Foundation.

Keywords: childhood obesity, childhood overweight, motor development disorders

Topic: Paediatrics

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Institution: Libre University

Committee: Libre University Ethics Committee

Reason: is a systematic or narrative review