COMPARISON OF QUALITY OF LIFE ACCORDING TO THE LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

Currently, several activities have been and continue to be transformed in ways that facilitate their processes. This facilitation consequently leads to a decrease in human movement, which plays roles related to health, mobility, motivation, and socialization, while also increasing the sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyle is a situation in which individuals do not engage in a minimum level of physical activity daily, and it can interfere with the quality of life of children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life according to the level of physical activity among schoolchildren in the municipality of Caxias do Sul - RS. This was a cross-sectional study with non-probabilistic sampling by accessibility, composed of schoolchildren aged seven to nine years from the municipal schools of Caxias do Sul/RS in the year 2018. The level of physical activity was assessed using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children (PAQ-C), and the quality of life was assessed using the KINDL QoL-Generic. An independent T-test was used for comparison between groups, with a significance level of p≤0.05. Of the 720 schoolchildren interviewed, only 18.1% (n=130) were classified as active, leaving a total of 81.9% (n=590) classified as sedentary. Regarding quality of life, the overall score was 76.8±9.8 points, demonstrating a good level of quality of life. Comparing the groups, it was observed that sedentary schoolchildren had lower scores in the self-esteem (p=0.007) and friends (p=0.002) domains, as well as in the total score (p=0.002). No significant differences were observed between active and sedentary groups for the other domains (p≥0.05). The present study concluded that the majority of the evaluated schoolchildren were classified as sedentary, and these individuals presented lower scores in overall quality of life and in the self-esteem and friends domains.