Relationships among BMI, physical activity practice and quality of life in teenagers

The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life related to health (QLRH) and physical activity (PA) patterns of adolescents with overweight or obesity and adolescents with normal weight. A total of 106 subjects (12.06 +/- 0.9 years of age) from a school in the city of Granada (Spain) participated in the study. The Kid-Kindl version of the Kindl questionnaire (adapted and validated to Spanish) was used to measure QLRH by means of the dimensions of physical well-being, emotional well-being, self-esteem, family, friends, and school. Results demonstrate that the percentage of active boys (those that practice 2 or more hours of moderate to vigorous PA outside of school) is significantly greater than the percentage of active girls. When comparing the PA done by subjects with normal weight and those with obesity/ overweight, it is observed that subjects with normal weight are significantly more active. For the points obtained in the questionnaire about quality of life, it is shown that subjects with normal weight obtain significantly better scores in general. This difference is also observed in all other dimensions of the questionnaire, except in the "Family" dimension where there are no differences; however, statistically significant differences are seen only in the "Self-esteem", and "School" dimensions. Given these results, it is necessary to develop intervention plans to generate healthy habits in children and adolescents, so they can maintain them in the future, and in this way reverse the tendency toward being obese adults.