Relación entre actividad física y obesidad en escolares

introduction: the presence of obesity among the children is an increasing problem in countries at world level. it development is due to factors of genetic type and those related to lifestyle including the physical activity. the children during the school period perform not much exercises since most or their time is devoted to tv or a videogames becoming them highly vulnerable to develop obesity. objective: to identify the association between the physical activity reported by mothers and obesity in schoolchildren. methods: a comparative, correlation and descriptive study was conducted. sample included 138 mothers and its schoolchildren from a elementary school of guadalupe, zacatecas. in mothers a questionnaire on physical activity in schoolchildren, known in english language as physical activity questionnaire; in children the weight and the height were measured. results: the prevalence combined of excess weight and obesity was of 29.7 %, higher in men from 8 years old. in an scale of 1 to 5 points, schoolchildren had a mean of physical activity of 2.5, devoting an average of 3 hours daily watching tv. the more frequent activities were to run and to jumping the cord. there were not significant differences in the physical activity performed according sex and age neither an association between the physical activity and the body weight in the schoolchildren, but a trend to significance in the case of obese children who watch tv for many hours than those with a normal weight. conclusions: it is necessary to use more accurate methods to assess the physical activity in schoolchildren. the questionnaires applied in mother showed that there is not association among variables used.