Association between tracking of extracurricular sports practice and weight status during childhood: a prospective cohort study

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic prevalences. Obesity control involves many factors and needs to begin early in childhood. OBJECTIVES: To ascertain the association between tracked extracurricular sports practice and weight status; and to analyze tracking of overweight and obesity among school-aged children. DESIGN AND SETTING: Prospective cohort study conducted in 13 public schools in Cianorte, Paraná, in 2012-2016. METHODS: The sample comprised 2459 schoolchildren in Cianorte, of mean age 6.3 years at baseline and 9.4 years at follow-up. Body mass index was calculated from body mass and height measurements. The children were grouped as normal weight, overweight or obese. Information on extracurricular sports practice was collected through the dichotomous question "Do you participate in any extracurricular sports?" ("yes" or "no"). RESULTS: Tracking of weight status showed that 75.5% maintained this, with kappa of 0.530. Tracking of extracurricular sports practice showed that 80.9% maintained this, with low concordance (kappa of 0.054). Weight status correlation between baseline and follow-up showed that overweight or obese individuals were 4.65 times (CI: 4.05-5.34) more likely to maintain the same classification or move from overweight to obese at follow-up. Correlation of extracurricular sports practice with overweight or obesity at follow-up was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated that overweight or obese children were at higher risk of gaining weight than were normal-weight children. In addition, the proportion of these children who maintained extracurricular sports practices over the years was low. Maintenance of this variable was not associated with weight status.

Perfil dos programas de iniciação esportiva adotados pelas Secretarias Municipais de Esporte da microrregião de CIANORTE / Profile of sports initiation programs adopted by the Municipal Sports Departments of the CIANORTE microregion

Entende-se que, a iniciação esportiva é o período no qual a criança começa a aprender, de forma específica, a prática de um ou vários esportes. A iniciação esportiva é marcada pela prática regular e orientada de uma ou mais modalidades esportivas, e o objetivo imediato é dar continuidade ao desenvolvimento da criança de forma integral, não implicando em competições regulares. Entende-se também como iniciação esportiva o primeiro momento de contato com a prática específica do esporte, caracterizando-se pelo objetivo educacional, de formação integral do ser humano a fim de contribuir para seu desenvolvimento físico, cognitivo, afetivo e social. Será de grande importância a aplicação sistemática, planejada e consciente de um determinado método de ensino-aprendizagem-treinamento para o êxito e evolução do nível de desempenho do praticante. Com base nesses conceitos o objetivo deste artigo foi verificar e analisar os programas e as formas de iniciação esportiva, identificando as metodologias e idades em que se dividem as respectivas estruturações de iniciação ao esporte, adotados pelas secretarias municipais de Esporte da região noroeste do Paraná, de modalidades individuais e coletivas por meio de entrevistas para gestores esportivos e técnicos ou professores responsáveis pela modalidade esportiva. Para isso, foram aplicadas pessoalmente entrevistas semiestruturadas ao supervisor ou coordenador esportivo de 11 entidades esportivas. Os resultados indicaram que as entidades promovem treinamento específico em idades abaixo das recomendadas pela literatura e permitiu sugerir adequações aos programas visando um treinamento a longo prazo para que não ocorra uma especialização esportiva precoce.

Sports initiation is understood by the period when a child begins to specifically learn the practice of one or more sports. Sport initiation is marked by regular and oriented practice of one or more sports, and the immediate goal is to continue the holistic development of the child, not implying in participation in regular competitions. It is also understood as the first contact of the child with the specific practice of the sport, being characterized by the educational purpose as an integral training of human beings, in order to contribute towards their physical, cognitive, emotional and social development. The systematic, planned and conscious application of a specific teaching-learning-training method is fundamental for the success and progress of the student's performance. Based on these principles, the purpose of this article is to verify and analyze the programs and forms of individual and team sports initiation, identifying methodologies and ages in which the corresponding sports initiation structures are divided, and adopted by the municipal sports departments in the northwestern region of Paraná through interviews with sports managers and coaches or teachers responsible for the sports modality. Semi-structured interviews were personally applied to the sports supervisor or coordinator of 11 sports institutions. The results have shown that the institutions promote specific training in ages below the ones recommended in the literature, allowing to suggest adaptations to the programs aiming at a long-term training in order to avoid early sports specialization.