Preschool Children: Fit, Healthy and Smart: PREFIT-Chile - Study Linking Physical Fitness to Non Invasive Health-Related Markers and Executive Function

In recent years it has been demonstrated that physical fitness , which is linked to a higher level of physical activity has a positive effect on the health status of adults, adolescents and children, especially by lowering the probability of developing overweight and/or obesity. At the same time, recent research has shown that there is a positive relationship between fitness with brain structure and executive function in children.

In Chile, overweight and obesity constitute a public health problem in children. National figures show that the prevalence of overweight / obesity among preschool children reached 53.6% in 2018 exposing the children not only the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases , but also affecting motor and cognitive development. Obesity has been shown to influence a country´s economic development, such as salary and productivity. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2017 determined that the health cost derived from obesity In Chile was equivalent to 0,2% of the national Gross Domestic Product. It is expected that by 2078, the estimated annual cost produced by an increasing prevalence overweight / obesity will be approximately 1 billion dollars.

Because it is not economically viable in Chile to determine in every overweight/obese child the probability of developing chronic diseases later in life, it is of utmost importance to have valid, simple and reliable indicators to discriminate at an early age, children that are at greatest risk. In this respect, physical fitness appears as a powerful health marker independent of the nutritional status. Evaluation of fitness as well as that of non-invasive health markers, motor development and neuropsychological development in preschool children in schools, constitute an excellent opportunity to investigate at an early age, alterations that could be prevented with adequate interventions in schools that would probably be significantly less costly than interventions applied later on. To achieve this goal, valid and reliable tools have to be developed that are also comparable with similar ones developed elsewhere.

With this background, The research objective is to analyze the factors that affect the configuration of a diagnostic model which includes the physical fitness and physical activity levels, motor development, non-invasive risk factors and neuropsychological development in preschoolers.

The hypothesis is that there is a positive association between physical fitness, non-invasive health markers and neuropsychological functions in preschool children, thus enabling to generate a predictive diagnostic model based on physical fitness.