ArticleSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2024
Motor Competence and Body Mass Index in the Preschool Years: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis of 5545 Children from Eight Countries.
Article in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship Between Fundamental Motor Skill Proficiency and the Development of Overweight and Obesity in Normally Developing Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Can active play replace skill-oriented physical education in enhancing fundamental movement skills among preschool children? A systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Design and test-retest reliability of a new test to assess motor competence in healthy older adults.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in Early Childhood at School with the 0-6 EpPOI Project: Efficacy on Motor Skills and Mediterranean Diet Adherence.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Study of body composition and motor competence in children from the 1st basic cycle and their relationship with school performance.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Building a Healthy Future: Functional Motor Skill Development in Precocious Prevention of Childhood Obesity.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- Mapping relationships among gross motor skills in 16,989 children using network analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Sex Differences in Gross Motor Competence in Italian Children Aged 3-11 Years: A Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2025Article
- An investigation of the relationship and pathways of influence between body mass index, motor coordination, and health-related physical fitness index in preschool children.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Characteristics of Children with an Undesirable Motor Competence Development During the Transition from Early to Middle Childhood: Results of a 2-Year Longitudinal Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Associations between Biological Maturation, Chronological Age, Body Mass Index, Sex, and Motor Competence in Prepubertal Children: A Network Analysis.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Gross Motor Skills Are Associated with Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in School-Aged Children.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Changes in Motor Competence of 4-8-Year-Old Children: A Longitudinal Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
26 authors at 20 institutions in 9 countries.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectiveOne in five preschool children are overweight/obese, and increased weight status over time increases the risks of poorer future health. Motor skill competence may be a protective factor, giving children the ability to participate in health-enhancing physical activity. Yet, we do not know when the relationship between motor competence and weight status first emerges or whether it is evident across the body mass index (BMI) spectrum. This study examined the association between motor skill competence and BMI in a multi-country sample of 5545 preschoolers (54.36 ± 9.15 months of age; 50.5% boys) from eight countries.
methodsQuantile regression analyses were used to explore the associations between motor skill competence (assessed using the Test of Gross Motor Development, Second/Third Edition) and quantiles of BMI (15th; 50th; 85th; and 97th percentiles), adjusted for sex, age in months, and country.
resultsNegative associations of locomotor skills, ball skills, and overall motor skill competence with BMI percentiles (p < 0.005) were seen, which became stronger at the higher end of the BMI distribution (97th percentile). Regardless of sex, for each raw score point increase in locomotor skills, ball skills, and overall motor skill competence scores, BMI is reduced by 8.9%, 6.8%, and 5.1%, respectively, for those preschoolers at the 97th BMI percentile onwards.
conclusionsPublic health policies should position motor skill competence as critical for children's obesity prevention from early childhood onwards. Robust longitudinal and experimental designs are encouraged to explore a possible causal pathway between motor skill competence and BMI from early childhood.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.