Body adiposity and daily TV viewing in 11 to 14-year-old students at two schools in Campo Grande, MS

Resumen

The objective of this study was to analyze body adiposity, daily TV viewing and prevalence of obesity, and to identify associations between TV viewing and relative body fat in boys and girls aged 11 to 14 years attending two municipal schools in Campo Grande - Mato Grosso, Brazil. One school is located in the central region of the city and the other on the periphery. The sample, 109 boys and 116 girls, a total of 225 students, was made up of students from the municipal schools “Danda Nunes” and “Nazira Anache”. The following variables were recorded: weight (mc), height (est), triceps (tr), subscapular (se) skinfolds and hours per day watching TV. It was concluded that relative body fat fi gures for the sample studied were not statistically different (p>0.05) for sex between the students of the central and peripheral schools. A prevalence of 25.86% of obesity was detected among the girls and 11.93% among the boys, confi rming published literature on the tendency of a larger accumulation of body fat among girls, mainly during and after the puberty. In this study it was not possible, with the sample used, to demonstrate an association between hours spent watching TV and relative body fat. It was observed that 60% of the girls and boys watch more than 3 hours of television a day, demonstrating the extended period that the children and adolescents remain physically inactive in front of the television.