Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
However, this study only used a univariate analysis, which does not consider
the effects contributed by other obesity-related factors. Nevertheless, this
finding is in agreement with a few other studies that reported that PA has
only a modest impact on body composition (
Wareham, van Sluijs, &
Ekelund, 2005
), and individuals who are physically active are more suscep-
tible to obesity compared to those who are less active (
Harding, Teyhan,
Maynard, & Cruickshank, 2008
)
likely due to an increase in sedentary time
among those people who were more active.
Although there is innumerable evidence that obesity and PA are linked,
our analysis of the GSHS data from the tropics showed that PA may not be
associated with the overweight incidence among adolescents in tropical
countries. Despite a lack of robust evidence to prove a causal association,
it is important that children and adolescents be encouraged to be more phys-
ically active and to spend less time in sedentary activities to avoid being over-
weight or obese. While PA is an important feature of the EE component, the
sedentary behavior that typically coexists with eating, particularly snacking,
may also cause an extra increase in the energy intake of children and
adolescents and thus plays an equally important role in maintaining energy
Pei, 2010
). This factor therefore strengthens the need for increasing PA
and reducing sedentary behavior in order to decrease the prevalence of over-
weight and obesity among children and adolescents.
6.2. PF and obesity
Because there are only a few studies reporting on the relationships between
PF and obesity among the children and adolescents in tropical countries, in
this section, we have also reviewed the findings reported by other countries
and regions.
There are two recent longitudinal studies
(
Aires et al., 2010; He et al.,
2011
) that reported an inverse relationship between PF and BMI. The risk
of becoming overweight or obese was higher among subjects with low fit-
ness levels compared to those who had higher fitness levels at baseline. This
observation is in agreement with a recent study conducted by
Monyeki,
Neetens, Moss, and Twisk (2012)
among children in South Africa.
In addition,
He et al. (2011)
found that boys with low fitness levels at base-
line were more likely than the girls to become overweight 3 years later.
A few studies in the tropics also reported that overweight and obese chil-
dren and adolescents tended to perform worse on certain fitness tests than
