Physical activity, lifestyle and nutrition as important indicators in the body mass index of children aged 3-6 years in the municipality of Mitrovica

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to determine the level of physical activity and healthy nutrition in children aged 3-6 years from Mitrovica. The research was attended by 94 children aged 3 - 6 years from two kindergartens in Mitrovica. As a parameter that measured the weight and height of the children,  it was calculated with the standardized procedure of Body Mass Index (BMI)  then was calculated according to the standard formula used by (Betterhealth, 2016). Also, after extracting other information through the questionnaire, a quantitative research was conducted through the parents of 94 children who were part of the measurements. A questionnaire was used to collect the data, which was previously translated and adapted into Albanian with permission to use it. The questionnaire was combined by three different questionnaires such as: the lifestyle questionnaire (Wilson et al., 2008), the physical activity questionnaire Pre-PAQ test (Dwyer et al., 2011) and the nutrition questionnaire (Rysha et al., 2017). The data collected during the research were placed in the statistical program SPSS version 21.0, and the presentation of this data was done through a descriptive analysis. The results that came from  this research showed that the effect of physical activity, lifestyle and nutrition have quite a high impact on body mass index in children. From the results we saw that the children of the two kindergartens from the municipality of Mitrovica did quite well in terms of physical activity, where in the questionnaires that were answered 89.4% of children were active more than an hour a day by walking and doing other activities. Also, the results regarding the questions in which they were asked about the time that children use the phone were at a satisfactory level, where a large percentage of parents, 77.7%, declared that their children did not use the phone  more than an hour a day. While in terms of nutrition, there have been many results which need more detailed analysis and to take preventive measures such as consumption of energy drinks, carbonated beverages, fast food, etc. From the measurement of children aged 3-4 years only one child turned out to be overweight with BMI = 18.7, while the rest came out with BMI with normal limits. As for children aged 4-5 years, one child turned out to be underweight with BMI = 12.4 and one obese with BMI = 21.9 and the others with BMI with normal limits. And out of children aged 5-6 years one child came out overweight with BMI = 17.7 and two others obese, one with BMI = 19.7 and the other BMI = 19.8 and the other children had normal weight (Betterhealth, 2016).