Objective. Body posture is a habit of motor skills
upgraded to a specific morphological and functional base.
During the period of an adolescent’s growth and
development, sedentary habits and physical activity are
important factors of body posture. The aim of this work was
to find out which type of activity, sedentary, dynamic or both,
influence the body posture of senior elementary school
children.
Methods. This prospective study involved 120 examinees
aged 10 to 16 of both genders, divided into three groups. The
first group consisted of 40 sport active children. The second
group consisted of 40 non-sport active children, and the third
group of 40 children who had a deformity of spine. The
authorized test for body posture, Physical Activity Evaluation
Test for elementary school children (TFA) and Body Mass
Index (BMI) were used.
Results. None of the children had excellent body posture.
Very good and good body posture grade was present in 77.5
%, 50% and 35% of children in groups 1, 2 and 3,
respectively. Significant correlation has been established
between the body posture of the monitored groups on one
side and the dynamic activities (p=0.000), and TFA on the
other (p=0.000), which was not the case with the sedentary
activities (p=0.315).
Conclusion. Contrary to the expected, the results showed
that the dynamic activities had more important influence on
body posture in each category of children, when compared to
sedentary activities. Urgent interventions in preventive
health policy are needed to promote physical activity among
adolescents.
