Percentage of body fat and weight gain in participants in the Tehran high school wrestling championship

Weight loss in wrestling has been found to be an interesting issue for researchers. In this regard, complications of weight loss in wrestlers before the competitions and their weight gain in course of competitions have been debated in previous studies. The objective of this study was to investigate the extent of weight gain and to estimate the percentage of body fat in participants in the Tehran high school male wrestling championship. This study was a cross sectional survey. Subjects were participants of the Tehran high school male wrestling championship [n=365]. Weight gain in course of competitions and body fat levels [based on skin fold measurements] of subjects were measured. Between the first weigh-in of the wrestlers which was done one day before the competitions and the second weigh-in which was conducted immediately before the first round of their first competition [20 hours], 69% of subjects gained on average 1.3 +/- 0.9 kg [range: 0.1 to 6.10 kg] or 2.2 +/- 1.7% of the wrestler's weight [range: 0.1 to 9.3]. Among the subjects, the mean of fat body percentage was found to be 15.2%. Rapid weight loss for matches were prevalent among subjects. It was also found that Iranian wrestlers have a relatively higher body fat percentage in comparison to American wrestlers. Therefore, it can be concluded that weight loss behaviour of these wrestlers should be changed from using dehydration methods to using gradual methods of weight loss such as fat reduction methods

Development and evaluation of a basic physical and sports activity program for preschool children in nursery schools in Iran: an interventional study

The objectives of this study were a] to develop a physical activity program for nursery schools, and b] to evaluate the effects of this program on fundamental movement skills of preschool age children in Iran. In this quasi-experimental study 147 children from five nursery schools in five different cities in Iran were enrolled. A physical activity program was developed for nursery children. Trained nursery physical activity instructors conducted the program for 10 weeks for all subjects. The levels of gross motor development of all subjects were measured before intervention and after 10 weeks physical activity program employing the Test of Gross Motor Development edition 2 [TGMD-2]. The participants in this study had a mean [SD] age of 4.95 [0.83] years. At the end of the study, scores of subjects at all components of TGMD-2 [including locomotor, object control, sum of standard scores and gross motor quotient] were significantly improved compared to the baseline scores [P<0.001]. Based on descriptive rating of the "Gross Motor Quotient" in the base line, 11.5% of subjects were superior/very superior [GMQ >120] and after 10 weeks intervention this rate was increased to 49.7% of all subjects. It seems that the developed physical activity program conducted by trained nursery physical activity instructors could be an effective and practical way of increasing levels of fundamental movement skills of preschool children in Iran

Sensitivity and specificity of self-reported symptoms for exercise-induced bronchospasm diagnosis in children

Exercise-induced bronchospasm [EIB] is a common condition in elite athletes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of self-reported EIB symptoms in children. In a cross sectional study in 2005, all soccer player boys of 3 football schools of Shahr Rey a town in the south of Tehran, enrolled in this study. All subjects were asked for the presence of four cardinal symptoms of EIB [cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, chest pain/discomfort] during and after exercise. Self reported symptom-based EIB was defined as having at least two out of four symptoms. Findings were compared to spirometric criteria as a gold standard test. A total of 371 boys were enrolled in this study. The mean age of children was 11.67 +/- 1.53 years [range 7-16 years]. According to spirometric findings, 74 [19.9%] subjects had EIB. The sensitivity and specificity of self-reported symptoms for EIB diagnosis were 13.0% and 89.9%, respectively. Self-reported symptoms of EIB in children can be useful for epidemiological study. Our results in Iran are comparable with studies in other countries and point to a relatively high prevalence of EIB among athlete children