TY - JOUR
T1 - Physical fitness reference standards in European children
T2 - the IDEFICS study
AU - De Miguel-Etayo, P
AU - Gracia-Marco, L
AU - Ortega, F B
AU - Intemann, T
AU - Foraita, R
AU - Lissner, L
AU - Oja, L
AU - Barba, G
AU - Michels, N
AU - Tornaritis, M
AU - Molnár, D
AU - Pitsiladis, Y
AU - Ahrens, W
AU - Moreno, L A
AU - IDEFICS Consortium
N1 - Funding information:
This work has been done as part of the IDEFICS Study (http://www.idefics.eu). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the European Community within the Sixth RTD Framework Programme Contract No. 016181 (FOOD). We are grateful to the Volkswagen Foundation that financially supported the production of this supplement. This analysis was also supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2011-09011). LL received grant support from VR, FORTE and FORMAS (research councils in Sweden). The authors wish to thank the IDEFICS children and their parents who generously, volunteered have participated in the IDEFICS study. We also acknowledge all the staff members involved in the fieldwork for their efforts and great enthusiasm. The information in this document reflects the authors’ view and is provided as is.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited
PY - 2014/9
Y1 - 2014/9
N2 - Background/Objectives: A low fitness status during childhood and adolescence is associated with important health-related outcomes, such as increased future risk for obesity and cardiovascular diseases, impaired skeletal health, reduced quality of life and poor mental health. Fitness reference values for adolescents from different countries have been published, but there is a scarcity of reference values for pre-pubertal children in Europe, using harmonised measures of fitness in the literature. The IDEFICS study offers a good opportunity to establish normative values of a large set of fitness components from eight European countries using common and well-standardised methods in a large sample of children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to report sex- and age-specific fitness reference standards in European children.Subjects/Methods: Children (10 302) aged 6-10.9 years (50.7% girls) were examined. The test battery included: the flamingo balance test, back-saver sit-and-reach test (flexibility), handgrip strength test, standing long jump test (lower-limb explosive strength) and 40-m sprint test (speed). Moreover, cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by a 20-m shuttle run test. Percentile curves for the 1st, 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 97th and 99th percentiles were calculated using the General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS).Results: Our results show that boys performed better than girls in speed, lower- and upper-limb strength and cardiorespiratory fitness, and girls performed better in balance and flexibility. Older children performed better than younger children, except for cardiorespiratory fitness in boys and flexibility in girls.Conclusions: Our results provide for the first time sex- and age-specific physical fitness reference standards in European children aged 6-10.9 years.
AB - Background/Objectives: A low fitness status during childhood and adolescence is associated with important health-related outcomes, such as increased future risk for obesity and cardiovascular diseases, impaired skeletal health, reduced quality of life and poor mental health. Fitness reference values for adolescents from different countries have been published, but there is a scarcity of reference values for pre-pubertal children in Europe, using harmonised measures of fitness in the literature. The IDEFICS study offers a good opportunity to establish normative values of a large set of fitness components from eight European countries using common and well-standardised methods in a large sample of children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to report sex- and age-specific fitness reference standards in European children.Subjects/Methods: Children (10 302) aged 6-10.9 years (50.7% girls) were examined. The test battery included: the flamingo balance test, back-saver sit-and-reach test (flexibility), handgrip strength test, standing long jump test (lower-limb explosive strength) and 40-m sprint test (speed). Moreover, cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed by a 20-m shuttle run test. Percentile curves for the 1st, 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 97th and 99th percentiles were calculated using the General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS).Results: Our results show that boys performed better than girls in speed, lower- and upper-limb strength and cardiorespiratory fitness, and girls performed better in balance and flexibility. Older children performed better than younger children, except for cardiorespiratory fitness in boys and flexibility in girls.Conclusions: Our results provide for the first time sex- and age-specific physical fitness reference standards in European children aged 6-10.9 years.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84930815204&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ijo.2014.136
DO - 10.1038/ijo.2014.136
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 25376221
AN - SCOPUS:84930815204
SN - 0307-0565
VL - 38
SP - S57-S66
JO - International Journal of Obesity
JF - International Journal of Obesity
ER -
