Obesidade na adolescência: O papel da actividade física nas funções executivas.

The aim of this paper was to study the efficiency in one physical activity program on executive performance in obese adolescents. Fifteen adolescents (5 males and 10 females) participated in this study, with a mean age of 14,73 years and a Body Mass Index mean of 36,75. None of them presented compulsive eating disorder, screened by the Binge Eating Scale. The participants were evaluated, at the beginning and at the end of the program, twelve months after, through a battery that evaluated the cognitive flexibility (Comprehensive Trail Making Test), inhibition capacity (Stroop Neuropsychological Screening Test and by the Frontal Assessment Battery) and planning (Tower of London). Wilcoxon tests were conducted to analyze data. The results showed statistically significant differences between the two moments of evaluation at the level of inhibitory control tasks and cognitive flexibility, with higher performances in the second evaluation. These results suggest that the integration of obese adolescents in this type of programs may potentiate their executive capacity. However caution in the interpretation of the results is needed by the lack of a control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]