Children's Obesity Treatment by Physical Activity

The goal of this study was to find out whether the obese and overweight children reduced their body weight after a 4-week stay in the Children's Treatment Centre of Kretin. Physical activity plays the crucial role in obesity prevention. Particularly in children, physical activity also helps to develop other qualities - confidence, independence, self-control, emotional stability and overall well-being and satisfaction. It reduces stress, anxiety or aggression. The lack of movement has a negative impact to incidence of overweight and obesity and consequent diseases. Obesity causes a strain to skeletal and joint system in a growing body. Orthopaedic problems further occur in difficult and painful locomotion. The treatment of children's obesity depends on its level and the age of the child. The complete change of lifestyle often represents the foundation stone of the therapy. This study brings results concerning weight loss in children after a 4-week treatment at the Children's Treatment Centre of Kretin, Czech Republic. Due to overweight or obesity, the children have a daily programme which includes 2 hours of active physical activity, either indoor or outdoor. At the beginning of the 4-week therapy, the children are measured for their body weight, body height, BMI and fat amount. At the end of the curative stay, the same parameters are measured again to verify a weight loss. After completion of the 4-week curative stay, all children have lost some weight but remained in the same percentile of BMI category, i.e. their initial category of overweight or obesity remained unchanged. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk