EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION: PROMOTING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TO CONTROL AND PREVENT CHILDHOOD OBESITY

The objective was to measure the effect of an educational intervention on the nutritional status, and cardiorespiratory fitness of children. A total of 709 children enrolled in public schools participated. The participants were organized into two Groups, Control (CG) and Intervention (IG). The study followed three stages, Stage 1 (day 0), the groups were characterized in terms of nutritional status, and cardiorespiratory fitness; Stage 2 (day 1 to 90), with the participation of only IG. This stage consisted of educational activities; Stage 3 (day 91), the groups were reassessed. The majority of the children were eutrophic, but a high number of participants were classified as overweight. There was no change in nutritional status after the educational intervention, but the intervention did increase the distance covered by IG on the running test. The CG reduced this distance (p < 0.05) when children were evaluated overall and in relation to sex (male). The actions increased the measures for GI. The eutrophic children in the CG and IG had a higher performance than the overweight children in the cardiorespiratory fitness test in Stage 1. This parameter worsened in Stage 3 for CG, while for IG the intervention increased the measures of fitness for eutrophic and overweight children. It was concluded that the educational intervention did not affect the children's nutritional status, however it increases cardiorespiratory fitness for boys and girls, for eutrophic and overweight children.