RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WEIGHT STATUS AND BASAL METABOLISM IN SCHOOLCHILDREN: THE MODERATING ROLE OF DIET QUALITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

There is currently a scientific trend to study the association between energy balance and its impact on health from the earliest stages of life. The aim of this study was to examine whether diet quality and physical activity moderate the association between weight status and basal metabolism in a sample of Murcian primary school children aged 8-12 years. Basal metabolism was calculated according to height, sex, and weight, with fixed coefficients following validated formulae. Physical activity was measured with the KrecePlus test; the KIDMED questionnaire was used to quantify diet quality and nutritional status was assessed by body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) adjusted for sex and age. The results obtained indicate that overweight schoolchildren have a higher basal metabolism than their normal-weight peers considering their diet quality and physical activity level (p<.001, for both). Also, the effects of weight status on basal metabolism may be moderated by diet quality (p<.05) but not by physical activity (p>.05). These results may be of particular interest to educational and health personnel since generating strategies to improve school children's eating habits, especially towards higher diet quality, could be vital as a method to increase basal metabolic energy expenditure and their overall health.