Published Paper Details:

The present study was carried out in 770 urban healthy school going boys of 5 to 10 years of age from middle socio-economic class Bengali families by race. This study determined the association between anthropometric obesity parameters (i.e. body mass index, waist to hip ratio, waist to thigh ratio and body fat percentage) and cardio-respiratory fitness (PFI) and also were compared the selected physiological parameters (i.e. resting blood pressure, pulse rate and respiratory rate) among three body weight categories of boys. Boys were classified on the basis of BMI-age-boys-Z-scores into normal weight, overweight and obese. All the selected anthropometric obesity parameters and physiological parameters significantly varied (p<0.001, p<0.05) among three body weight categories. The lowest 5th to highest 95th percentiles values of PFI were lower in obese boys than those in normal weight and overweight boys. Obesity parameters were found to have significant negative correlation (p< 0.001) with PFI. Multiple regressions analysis demonstrated that there was highly significant (p< 0.001) and negative association of WHR with PFI when height, BMI, body fat% and WTR were constant. PFI scores and obesity indices are negatively associated. The results from this study indicate that central obesity marker (i.e. WHR) may be responsible for lower levels of PFI in overweight and obese boys. Thus, it is suggested to promote overweight and obese boys to decrease their body fat for increased cardiorespiratory efficiency.