Background: The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among children is often associated with motor deficits. Motor performance among children partly depends on modifiable factors, for example, weight status, electronic media use, sports club participation, and on nonmodifiable factors, for example, sex, age, migration background, or socio-economic status.
Aim: To evaluate factors associated with motor performance among overweight and nonoverweight Tyrolean primary school children.
Methods: Height, weight, and sport motor performance of primary school children were measured using the German motor performance test DMT 6-18. In addition, children were asked about migration background, sports club participation, and electronic media use in their room.
Results: A total of 304 children (48.7% girls) with a mean age of 8.0 ± 1.2 years were tested. In total, 61 (20.1%) children were overweight or obese. Regarding motor performance, nonoverweight children showed significantly higher total z-scores (106.8 ± 5.7 vs. 102.4 ± 6.8). For the total cohort, results of the multiple linear regression analysis (R (2) = 0.20) revealed that factors male sex (β = 0.12), nonoverweight children (β = 0.28), higher school grade (β = 0.23), sports club participation (β = 0.18),and > 2 weekly lessons of physical education (β = 0.26) were associated with an increased motor performance. For nonoverweight children results of the multiple linear regression analysis (R (2) = 0.09) found that a higher school grade (β = 0.17), sports club participation (β = 0.16),and more than 2 weekly lessons of physical education (β = 0.22) were associated with an increased motor performance. For the overweight children, results of the multiple linear regression analysis (R (2) = 0 .43) showed that no migration background (β = 0.23), a higher school grade (β = 0.55), sports club participation (β = 0.33) and more than 2 weekly lessons of physical education (β = 0.48) were associated with an increased motor performance.
Conclusion: Regarding modifiable factors, motor performance among overweight and nonoverweight children is strongly associated with a higher number of weekly lessons in physical education. Therefore, daily lessons in physical education are strongly recommended to improve motor performance especially among overweight primary school children.
Keywords: Migration background; Motor performance; Overweight; Physical education; Physical fitness; Primary school.