Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children: the PREFIT project
Fecha
2018Autor
Versión
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Tipo
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión
Versión aceptada / Onetsi den bertsioa
Impacto
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10.1016/j.jsams.2018.09.227
Resumen
Objectives: Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age- ...
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Objectives: Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age-specific physical fitness reference standards for Spanish preschool children; and (2) to study sex differences across this age period and to characterise fitness performance throughout the preschool period. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: A total of 3179 preschool children (1678 boys) aged 2.8–6.4 years old from Spain were included in the present study. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT battery. Results: Age- and sex-specific percentiles for the physical fitness components are provided. Boys performed better than girls in the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility tests over the whole preschool period studied and for the different percentiles. In contrast, girls performed slightly better than boys in the balance test. Older children had better performance in all fitness tests than their younger counterparts. Conclusions: Our study provides age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference standards in preschool children allowing interpretation of fitness assessment. Sexual dimorphism in fitness tests exists already at preschool age, and these differences become larger with age. These findings will help health, sport, and school professionals to identify preschool children with a high/very low fitness level, to examine changes in fitness over time, and to analyse those changes obtained due to intervention effects. [--]
Materias
Cardiorespiratory fitness,
Motor skills,
Muscular strength,
Reference values
Editor
Elsevier
Publicado en
Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 22 (2019) 430–437
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Osasun Zientziak Saila /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD
Versión del editor
Entidades Financiadoras
The PREFIT project takes place thanks to the funding linked to the Ramón y Cajal grant held by FBO (RYC-2011-09011). CC-S is supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BES-2014-068829). JRR and FBO are supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2010-05957 and RYC-2011-09011, respectively). In addition, this study was further supported by the University of Granada, Plan Propio de Investigación 2016, Excellence actions: Units of Excellence; Unit of Excellence on Exercise and Health (UCEES). Additional funding from the SAMID III network, RETICS, funded by the PNI+D+I 2017-2021 (Spain), ISCIII- Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Ref. RD16/0022), the EXERNET Research Network on Exercise and Health in Special Populations (DEP2005-00046/ACTI), the University of the Basque Country (GIU14/21), and the University of Zaragoza (JIUZ-2014-BIO-08).