Psicomotricidad

Rev. Chil. Pediatr. 67 (5); 212-218, 1996

Actividad fisica en escolares chilenos normales y de talla baja
Vivien Gattas Z.1; Gladys Barrera A.2; Jose Riumallo S.3; Ricardo Uauy D.? Physicalactivity in normal and low height for age Chilean school children

irfe obtained for a week day and a weekend- A trained observer recorded physical activities performed by each cui d along a 20 rrrutesbreck in schoc! duties. Most acrivities were of sedentary type. A striking findrg wcs 'he time soent en sdenfary act'viries such as sleeping and lync dow^ ( 1 1 .5 ± 1 . 1 to 1 2.0 ± 1 .4 nous innormal and small for height boys and 1 1 .9 ± 1 .2 to 1 2.2 ± 1 .6 hours in normcl and snail for -eight grls). Both boys and girls spent an averace 3 hours a day watching TV on school days and 4 hours ormore cr weekends. No s'gnificant differences in time aistr'bution of different physical activities were found oefween normal aid short stature children. Direct cbserva'ion showed that normal aoys spendsignificantly larger proportion of iheir time |29.6%j :n moderate and heavy activries than short boys and girls and tna" norrra' girls (p < 0.05J. Srra'l for age child'en encage less Ine in '-ighexpendifure cctiv'ties than "ormal children, Thus, in general 'hese chilean schoc : children showed sedentary life styles, with minimal physical actviry and they devoted 30% of t^eir daily time to watchTV. (Key words: activities o: daily living, exercise, ene'gy metabolism, expendiru/e, schoc : chi dren.)

En Chile se ha superado en IDS ultimos decenios la desnutricidn aguda. Sin embargo, unnumero importante de escolares de primero y segundo ano basico y condicion socioeconomica baja, tienen talla baja (30 y 34% respectivamente), proporci6n que aumenta progresivamente con la edad a 65% a lade 13 anos 1 . Entre los problemas asociados con talla baja se mencionan menores actividad y capacidad de trabajo fi'sico2. Las prevalencias de sobrepeso y obesidad (segun peso para la talla) en...