The World Health Organization defines overweight and obesity as an abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that can be harmful to health, it also points out that the majority of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity claim more lives than low weight (WHO, 2021).

Schoolchildren are no exception, obesity in this population has become a serious global public health problem. Every day there are more overweight schoolchildren in the classroom because overweight and obesity are extreme forms of this problem and can lead to the exclusion of groups, low academic performance and school dropout (Díaz et al., 2016).

By the way, the determinants of academic performance in children and adolescents may be conditioned by body composition, it is likely that excess body fat displays significant changes in anatomical components, leading to the development of postural deviations, that is, health problems predict the level academic (Tárraga López & Tárraga Marcos 2018, Gelabert Carulla, Muntaner Mas, & Palou Sampol 2019, Mikkonen, Remes, Moustgaard, & Martikainen 2020, Alves Junior, Mocellin, Gonçalves, Silva, & Trindade 2017, Štefanová, Bakalár, & Baška, 2020). Consequently, it is necessary to highlight the relevance of body composition studies, mainly from an early age, which allows obtaining valuable information on the size and shape of a child regarding normality data, thus being a central element for intervention by part of health professionals.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents (5 to 19 years old) has increased dramatically, from 4% in 1975 to more than 18% in 2016. This increase was similar for both sexes: 18% of girls and 19% of children were overweight in 2016 (WHO, 2021).

In a recent investigation carried out by the professors Carmen Lorena Murillo and Ingrid Franco and the student Lesly Gineth Torres from the Physiotherapy program at the Cali campus, which sought, among other elements, to evaluate the body composition in school-age children (7 and 12 years old), It was found in the assessment of obesity: Body Mass Index (BMI) and Body Fat Percentage (PGC), that of the total number of schoolchildren (77), 33% had a high or slightly high BMI, and in the In the case of the PGC, 47% of the population under study, registering high or slightly high percentages.
Of the girls who participated in the study (40), 30% reported abnormal values ​​in BMI and 20% in PGC, as for boys (37), 17% in BMI and 13% in PGC, data well above that reported by the WHO and very worrying considering the repercussions on health that these children can present in adulthood.

Bibliography:

Alves Junior, C. A. S., Mocellin, M. C., Gonçalves, E. C. A., Silva, D. A. S., & Trindade, E. B. S. M. (2017). Anthropometric indicators as body fat discriminators in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Advances in Nutrition, 8(5), 718–727. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.117.015446

Diaz, M. G., Larios, J. O., Mendoza, M. L., Moctezuma, L. M., Rangel, V. & Ochoa, C. (2016, 3 octubre). La obesidad escolar. Un problema actual. Medigraphic. Recuperado 2 de diciembre de 2022, de https://www.medigraphic.com/cgi-bin/new/resumen.cgi?IDARTICULO=68448

Gelabert Carulla, J., Muntaner Mas, A., & Palou Sampol, P. (2019). Influencia del desplazamiento activo al colegio sobre la composición corporal y el rendimiento académico en escolares de 10-12 años (Influence of active commuting to school on body composition and academic achievement in schoolchildren aged 10-12 years). Retos, 2041(36), 376–383. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v36i36.68166

Mikkonen, J., Remes, H., Moustgaard, H., & Martikainen, P. (2020). Early Adolescent Health Problems, School Performance, and Upper Secondary Educational Pathways: A Counterfactual-Based Mediation Analysis. Social Forces, 99(June 2020), 1146–1175. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa048

OMS. (2021, 9 junio). Obesidad y sobrepeso. Organización Mundial de la Salud. https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

Štefanová, E., Bakalár, P., & Baška, T. (2020). Eating-disordered behavior in adolescents: Associations with body image, body composition and physical activity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186665

Stover, J. B. (2014). Rendimiento académico, estrategias de aprendizaje y motivación en alumnos de Escuela Media de Buenos Aires. Dialnet. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5113960

Tárraga López, P., & Tárraga Marcos, M. (2018). Influencia del sedentarismo sobre el rendimiento académico en la adolescencia: una revisión bibliográfica. Journal of Negative and No Positive Results, 3(2), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.19230/jonnpr.1645