Physical Fitness and Overweight in Adolescents
Author Information
Author(s): Pascal Bovet, Robert Auguste, Hillary Burdette
Primary Institution: Unit for Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Disease, Ministry of Health, Republic of Seychelles
Hypothesis
Children who were overweight or obese would have lower fitness levels on all of the tests, especially the measure of cardiorespiratory fitness, the multistage shuttle run.
Conclusion
This study shows a strong inverse relationship between fitness and excess body weight in adolescents.
Supporting Evidence
- 11.2% of boys and 17.5% of girls were found to be overweight.
- Students with normal body weight achieved 'good' performance markedly more often than overweight or obese students.
- Good performance for the multistage shuttle run was achieved by 25.6% of lean students compared to only 1.2% of obese students.
Takeaway
Being fit is really important for kids, and those who are overweight tend to be less fit. This study looked at a lot of kids to see how fitness and weight are connected.
Methodology
All students of four grades of all secondary schools performed nine physical fitness tests, and weight and height were measured to calculate BMI.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to self-selection of participants and reliance on fitness tests that may not capture all aspects of physical fitness.
Limitations
The cross-sectional design does not allow for determining causality between fitness and weight.
Participant Demographics
4599 students aged 12–15 years, including 2203 boys and 2143 girls.
Statistical Information
Confidence Interval
95% CI: 9.9–12.4 for boys, 15.9–19.1 for girls
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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