Factors Associated with Body Mass Index (BMI) and Physical Activity among Korean Juveniles

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with child's Body Mass Index (BMI) and physical activity. The participants (n = 133) were Korean juveniles (3^rd and 4^th graders) and their parents. They completed a questionnaire packet including the SPARK (Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids) survey and the parent equivalent survey. Correlation, multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression analyses were applied to identify the association between child's BMI and 10 factors of SPARK as predict or variables. 25.6% of the participants were classified as overweight (21.1%) or obesity (4.5%). 3 parental factors including mother's BMI and frequency of mother's and father's physical activity were identified as significant predictors of children's BMI. The 10 variables accounted for 28% of the variance (p<.01) in the linear regression model. These results provide insight into parental factors which are related to a child's BMI and physical activity. Parental role modeling which refers to parents' efforts to model an active lifestyle for children plays an important role.