Association Between Body Mass Index and Motor Competence in Santal Children of Purulia District, India

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between body mass index and motor competence in Santal children 5–12 years old. A total of 816 Santal children were studied. Children's adiposity status was assessed by body mass index (BMI) for age z-score based on World Health Organization reference data. Motor competence was measured using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Competence (BOT-2). There was no significant difference in mean BMI z-score between Santal boys (0.13 ± 0.07) and girls (−0.14 ± 0.07). Healthy weight (HW) children scored higher (p <.05) in some individual motor subtests (bilateral competence, balance, running speed and agility, upper limb competence, and strength) and in total BOT-2 score (p <.05) compared with scores for underweight (UW) and overweight (OW) children. Nonlinear regression analysis showed that BMI is a significant independent predictor of motor competence (p <.01). Motor competence showed a curvilinear relationship with BMI-z-score, with the lowest point motor scores in strength and upper limb competence (p <.05) for both UW and OW children compared to HW children who scored highest. The results also indicated that gross motor skills, but not fine motor skills, were poorer among children who were UW or OW compared with HW children.