The effect of age, gender and BMI on balance, jump and hop performance in South African children aged six to 11 years

Abstract

Background: Many contradictions have been found regarding the effect of age, gender and Body Mass Index (BMI) on balance, jump and hop performance in primary school-aged children. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies investigating these effects in a South African sample. This study is of significant interest for pediatric physiotherapists in South Africa, interested in evaluating motor skills in children. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of age, gender and BMI on balance, jump and hop performance in South African children aged six to 11 years. Results: No significant effects of age, gender and BMI were found for static balance, dynamic balance, and jump performance. A significant main effect of age (p<0.001) and gender (p=0.031) was found for moving cans, whereby two age groups can be distinguished. Also, a significant main effect of age (p<0.001), gender (p=0.005) and BMI (p=0.022) was found for hopping, whereby three age groups can be distinguished. Lastly, significant correlations (ranging from very small (<0.20) to moderate (0.40-0.59)) were found between all balance performances, except between static balance and jump performance. Conclusion: The effects of age, gender and BMI seem to be task dependent, and significant effects were not found for all tasks. SES possibly plays an important role in the discrepancy found between our findings and those in previous literature. Therefore, research on the effect of SES on motor performance is needed.