SynthesisCurrent sports medicine reports
Do youth sports prevent pediatric obesity? A systematic review and commentary.
Synthesis in Current sports medicine reports. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 156 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effects of Football Practice on Nutritional Status and Body Composition in Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Barriers to voluntary participation in sport for children: a systematic review.BMC pediatrics · 2018Pooled it
- Physical activity in overweight and obese adolescents: systematic review of the effects on physical fitness components and cardiovascular risk factors.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2014Pooled it
- Eat, play, live: a randomized controlled trial within a natural experiment examining the role of nutrition policy and capacity building in improving food environments in recreation and sport facilities.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2019Trial
- Organised sports participation and adiposity among a cohort of adolescents over a two year period.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Why they do not move: An explainable machine learning analysis of physical activity barriers in obese adolescents and tool translation.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Do team sports have positive effects on anxiety levels and mood disorders? A systematic review protocol.Systematic reviews · 2026Article
- The Impact of Physical Activity at School on the Nutritional Behavior of Overweight Children.Nutrients · 2025Article
- General and sport-specific nutrition knowledge and behaviors of adolescent athletes.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
- Food Culture in Youth Athletics: Exploration of the Beliefs in USA Stakeholders.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2025Article
- Rationale, design, and methodology of My Body Is Fit and Fabulous at school (MyBFF@school) study: a multi-pronged intervention program to combat obesity among Malaysian schoolchildren.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Parents' sports-related behaviors, self-concept of ability, interest and organized after-school sports activities participation among Chinese elementary school children.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Temporal Trends in Single- and Multiple-Sports Team Participation Among Adolescents in the United States: Analysis Using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, 1999-2019.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2024Article
- Sports and Weight Control in Children.Cureus · 2024Review
- Dietary Habits of Elite Soccer Players: Variations According to Competitive Level, Playing Position and Sex.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Improving reflective evaluations of sport through repeated experiences of fun-rationale, design, feasibility, and acceptability of the PlayFit Youth Sport Program.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2023Article
- Investigating the Impact of Food Rewards on Children's Motivation to Participate in Sport.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Using A Thin Slice Coding Approach to Assess Preschool Overweight and Obesity.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- Body Image Perception in Adolescents: The Role of Sports Practice and Sex.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Attitudes and Opinions of Parents towards Water-Only Drink Policy at Junior Triathlon Events.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Sport is a promising setting for obesity prevention among youth, but little is known about whether it prevents obesity. We reviewed research comparing sport participants with nonparticipants on weight status, physical activity, and diet. Among 19 studies, we found no clear pattern of association between body weight and sport participation. Among 17 studies, we found that sport participants are more physically active than those who do not participate. We found seven studies that compared the diet of sport participants with non-participants. These studies reported that youth involved in sport were more likely to consume fruits, vegetables, and milk, and also more likely to eat fast food and drink sugar-sweetened beverages and consume more calories overall. It is unclear from these results whether sports programs, as currently offered, protect youth from becoming overweight or obese. Additional research may foster understanding about how sport, and youth sport settings, can help promote energy balance and healthy body weight.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.