Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Correlates of Psychosocial Health-related Quality of Life Measures for Normal Weight and Obese Children Participating in an Active Play Program

Department of Health Science, Pediatric Exercise Science Laboratory, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto Ontario, Canada

*Corresponding Author:

Angelo Belcastro
Department of Health Science
School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health
York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto
ON, M3J 1P3, Canada
Tel: (416) 736 5403
E-mail: anbelcas@yorku.ca

Received Date: August 12, 2015 Accepted Date: August 31, 2015 Published Date: September 04, 2015

Citation: Belcastro A, Mofidi DM, Ahmadi Y, Moghaddaszadeh A (2015) Correlates of Psychosocial Health-related Quality of Life Measures for Normal Weight and Obese Children Participating in an Active Play Program. J Child Adolesc Behav 3:242. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000242

Copyright: © 2015 Belcastro A et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to examine changes in quality of life indicators from normal weight (NW) and overweight (OW) children to a play-based fun physical activity (PA) intervention. Methods: Children (n=33) were assessed prior to and following an eight-week (4 d/wk; 55 min/d) active play program. Children were assessed by the PedsQL survey for psychosocial function and perception of physical function, PA enjoyment and PA participation. Results: These were related to changes in body composition, cardiovascular measures and physical activity participation. OW children showed a reduction in waist circumference (1 mm) and sum of skinfold (12 mm) (p<0.05), in contrast to NW group (p>0.05). NW and OW groups experienced similar reductions in blood pressure (p<0.05). The changes in body composition (body mass waist circumference and sum of skinfolds) were related (r from -0.36 to -0.51) with psychosocial function for NW and OW children (p<0.05). In contrast the cardiovascular measures were related to changes in the OW group for blood pressures and heart rate. Conclusions: In summary NW children had a less pronounced response for cardiovascular measures to playbased PA when compared to the OW group. Nonetheless both groups benefitted in terms of improvements in body fat (waist circumference; sum of Skinfolds). Therefore active play PA programs, in contrast to training programs, are effective in mediating obesity and beneficial to physical health regardless of a child’s weight or risk status

Keywords