title: The relationship between children's motor proficiency and health-related fitness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The overall purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motor proficiency and health-related fitness in children. In addition, the study aimed to determine if particular combinations of motor skills have a stronger relationship with individual health-related fitness measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-seven children (F:28, M:49) (mean age: 11.19 ± 2.74 years) participated in this prospective cohort study. Physical measures included the following: motor proficiency (Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, heart rate and VO(2) peak (mL/kg/min).
  
  
  RESULTS
  After factoring in age, motor proficiency as a combined total score had a strong negative relationship with the health-related fitness measures of BMI (r (2)  = 0.62, P < 0.001) and waist circumference (r (2)  = 0.72, P < 0.001) and a strong positive relationship with VO2 peak (r (2)  = 0.78, P = 0.002). Children with lower motor proficiency (≤25th percentile) had a significantly larger mean waist circumference (M = 13.85 cm, 95% confidence interval (CI) (2.05, 25.66), P = 0.01), heavier weight (M = 22.17 kg, 95% CI (2.44, 41.91), P = 0.02) and higher BMI (M = 5.10 kg/m(2) , 95% CI (0.33, 9.87), P = 0.03) than children with higher motor proficiency (≤75th percentile).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Motor proficiency, once corrected for age, is significantly related to a number of health-related measures in children and should therefore be considered a focus for investigation for children with poor health-related fitness (e.g. high BMI and waist circumference percentiles or low cardiorespiratory fitness), as motor incompetence could be an underlying contributing factor to a child's poor physical health.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond Institute of Health and Sport, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Nikki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Milne
authors.affiliation: Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Department of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Gary M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Leong
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond Institute of Health and Sport, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hing
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies
keywords: blood pressure; child; fitness; health; motor skill; waist circumference