engleski

The Prevalence and Differences in the Physical Activity Level in Preschool-Aged Children

For a longer period of time there has been a diminution in the level of physical activity in the world, which means that each new generation has a lower level of physical activity than the former generation, while results obtained for children are especially worrisome (Jurakić and Heimer, 2012). The level of physical activity is significantly linked to health and has become one of the greatest challenges for scientists throughout the world. The aim of this research was to determine the level of preschool-aged children's physical activity and define if there was a statistically significant difference according to sex. The sample of examinees consisted of 98 children (50 boys and 48 girls) aged 2 to 7 and attending kindergartens in the city of Rijeka, Croatia. The children's physical activity was evaluated by the standardized questionnaire Health Behaviour for Children filled in by their parents. The percentages of children belonging to a certain category of physical activity level were calculated, and the significance of differences was analysed by the Chi-square test. The research results indicate that somewhat more than 55 % of examinees are active one hour per week, 30 % of them are active two to three hours a week, while only 13 % of them are active four to six hours a week. The results also show that boys are statistically more significantly (p=0.00) active than girls. The analysis shows that there is no child in any of the groups who satisfies the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, namely 60 minutes of activity per day of a moderate or high intensity (World Health Organisation, 2014). Former researches indicate an exceptionally low level of physical activity as early as at preschool age (Tomac et al., 2015). This research has shown that even at the preschool age there is a serious problem of insufficient physical activity which calls for intervention programmes.

physical activity, nurseries, earliest stages, health

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