Physical activity and overweight among adolescents on the Texas-Mexico border La actividad física y el sobrepeso en adolescentes que viven en la frontera mexicanoestadounidense

• Main Authors: Adriana Pérez, Belinda M. Reininger, María Isabel Aguirre Flores, Maureen Sanderson, Robert E. Roberts
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2006
• Subjects: Obesidad; peso corporal; acondicionamiento físico; adolescente; Americanos Mexicanos; México; Texas; Overweight; obesity; physical fitness; adolescent; Mexican Americans; Mexico; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic; Grande Valley
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/0cc75608d950406190aea512e7ed3224

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences in associations between physical activity and over-weight for students in two adjacent areas on the border between Mexico and the United States of America: students in the city of Matamoros, Mexico, and Mexican-American students in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) area of southern Texas. Since the extremely high prevalence of overweight among Mexican-American adolescents is well-recognized, we wanted to determine whether overweight has become a problem among Mexican adolescents as well. METHODS: Students from 6 schools (n = 653), representing 11% of the ninth-grade students in Matamoros during 2002-2003, and students from 13 high schools (n = 4 736), representing 22% of the ninth-grade students in the LRGV during 2000-2001, completed questionnaires. Polytomous logistic regression was performed to estimate the risk of being at risk for overweight (> 85th percentile to < 95th percentile of body mass index (BMI) for age and sex) and the risk of being overweight (> 95th percentile of BMI-for-age and sex) versus normal weight that were associated with measures of physical activity. For simplicity, the classification of normal weight also included underweight. RESULTS: A higher percentage of adolescents in the LRGV were at risk of overweight (17%) in comparison with adolescents from Matamoros (15%). The percentages of LRGV and Matamoros adolescents who were overweight were identical (17%). LRGV adolescent boys (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77-0.98) who participated in team sports were less likely to be at or above the 85th percentile of BMI-for-age and sex. Although of borderline significance, Matamoros and LRGV adolescent boys who participated in physical education classes were less likely to be at risk for overweight. Among neither the Matamoros students nor the LRGV students were any of the various other physical activity categories or levels associated with being at risk for overweight or being overweight. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one-third of the students in both Matamoros and ...