The Effects of a 12-Week Swimming Exercise Program on Body Composition and Physical Fitness in Obese Male Elementary Students: A Critically Appraised Paper

Context: Obese patients, including adolescents, are at an increased risk for developing many health issues, including type-2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular disease. Adolescents, in particular, suffering from obesity will likely continue to suffer from it in adulthood.

Objective: Determine the effectiveness of aquatic exercise on body composition, physical fitness, and vascular compliance of obese elementary students.
Methods: After selecting the Lee and Oh study, key evidence including study design, sample population, procedure, outcome measures, and results were summarized. Critical appraisal of the study’s internal, external, and statistical validity followed.

Results: Twenty obese elementary male students were split into two groups: swimming (n=10) and control group (n=10). Over 12-weeks, the swimming group exercised at an exercise intensity of 50-70% HRmax for 60-minutes, 3-days/wk. The control group did not participate in the swimming program.The swimming group showed significant changes in weight (P<0.05), body fat percentage (P<0.001) and fat-free mass (P<0.001). Posttest differences between groups revealed significant differences. Within the swimming group, differences in muscular endurance (P<0.05), flexibility (P<0.001), and cardiopulmonary endurance (P<0.001) were observed. Between-group differences were observed for muscular endurance (P<0.05), flexibility (P<0.05), and cardiopulmonary endurance (P<0.001). For vascular compliance, the right leg showed a significant difference within the swimming group (P<0.05).

Validity: Internal validity was threatened due to no description of subjects being randomly allocated, therefore unable to ensures that (within the constraints provided by chance) treatment and control groups are comparable. External validity was compromised due to the study population being predominately males making it challenging to generalize between genders.

Conclusions: Regular aquatic exercise for 60-minutes a day, 3-days/week at an exercise intensity of 50-70% HRmax may have a positive effect on body composition, physical fitness, muscular endurance, and flexibility within obese male elementary students.

Keywords: Obesity, swimming, adolescent, aquatic exercise.