School-Based Exercise Programs for Promoting Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Overweight and Obese Children Aged 6 to 10

Stefan Mijalković; Dušan Stanković; Mario Tomljanović; Maja Batez; Maki Grle; Ivana Grle; Ivan Brkljačić; Josip Jularić; Goran Sporiš; Suzana Žilič Fišer

doi:10.3390/children9091323

School-Based Exercise Programs for Promoting Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Overweight and Obese Children Aged 6 to 10

Children (Basel). 2022 Aug 30;9(9):1323. doi: 10.3390/children9091323.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Niš, 18000 Niš, Serbia.
² Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, Ruđera Boškovića 31, 21000 Split, Croatia.
³ Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
⁴ Orthopedic Clinical Department, University Clinical Hospital in Mostar, 88000 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁵ Clinical Department for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University Clinical Hospital in Mostar, 88000 Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁶ Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
⁷ Institute of Media Communications, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, Koroška Cesta 46, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the school-based exercise programs for promoting cardiorespiratory fitness in overweight and obese children aged 6 to 10. Electronic databases (Web of Science and PubMed) were used as searching tools for collecting adequate studies published in the past 20 years. A total of 13 studies met the criteria for inclusion in this review, with a total of 2810 participants, both male and female. According to the results of this systematic review, overweight and obese children aged 6 to 10 who underwent certain interventions had their CRF improved. Furthermore, evidence suggested that interventions carried out during a longer period of time suggested led to greater improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness than a shorter one, but the level of cardiorespiratory fitness gradually decreases after the intervention.

Keywords: children; health; monitoring and promoting; motor competence; obesity; physical activity; physical fitness; sedentary behavior; sport; well-being.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.