TITLE:
Differences in Sensorimotor Feedback Performance by Body Weight in 12- to 15-Year-Old Adolescents
AUTHORS:
Carla Greier, Clemens Drenowatz, Gerhard Ruedl, Werner Kirschner, Klaus Greier
KEYWORDS:
Sensorimotor Feedback, Balance, Overweight and Obesity, Youth, Health, Motor Ability, School
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.14 No.1,
January
9,
2024
ABSTRACT: Background: The field of sensorimotor feedback is still a young area in science. In
several studies, it has been observed that with increasing exercise intensity,
motor performance decreases in overweight and obese individuals compared to
normal weight individuals, but in the area of sensorimotor feedback
performance, the data is still very limited. Aim: The present study
investigates the association between body mass index (BMI) and sensorimotor feedback performance in
Austrian adolescents. Methods: In a cross- sectional
study, 12- to 15-year-old adolescents (N = 294) were recruited from 5 schools
in Tyrol (Austria). Using the reference system according to Kromeyer-Hauschild et al. (2001), BMI percentiles were determined, and participants were categorized into
four weight categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese.
Sensorimotor feedback performance was assessed using the MFT? Challenge Disc. Differences in sensorimotor feedback between weight
categories were determined via Kruskall-Wallis test for independent samples
with SPSS 28.0. Results: Of the 294 adolescents (48.6% female), 16.3%
were overweight and 7.2% were obese. The results show that underweight and
normal weight adolescents do not differ in sensorimotor performance, while
performance was significantly worse in overweight and obese adolescents (p
). Conclusions: These results emphasize the importance of
diverse movement experiences that not only address physical fitness but also
coordinative abilities in adolescents, particularly those with excess body
weight.