Motor development according to nutritional status in preschoolers

Resumen

The objective of the study was to compare motor development according to nutritional status in children
aged 3 to 5 belonging to “JUNJI” nursery schools from Valparaíso, Chile. It is a descriptive study with a nonprobabilistic
sample for convenience, composed of 136 preschoolers (girls n=70 and boys n=66) with a mean age of 3.67 ± 0.40 years. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated based on the formula extracted from weight and height, expressed in kg/m2 and nutritional status was classified based on international indications described by the World Health Organization (WHO). Motor development was identified and classified with the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2). A comparative analysis was performed according to gender and nutritional status. Preschoolers tested mainly
between the levels of motor development “very poor”, “poor”, “low average” and “average”. No preschooler was
placed at the “very high” level. No significant differences were found according to gender and nutritional status
for the motor development variable. Girls in overweight/obesity categories showed a lower motor development
than girls in low weight/normal weight categories, a situation that was not shown among boys.