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The Most Active Child Is Not Always the Fittest: Physical Activity and Fitness Are Weakly Correlated.
- Source :
-
Sports (Basel, Switzerland) [Sports (Basel)] 2022 Dec 22; Vol. 11 (1). Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 22. - Publication Year :
- 2022
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Abstract
- The present cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical activity level (PA) on physical fitness by controlling for individual characteristics in Italian children. A total of 329 children (girls n = 155, 42.6%; from five primary schools, 17 classes) aged 8-10 filled out the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children (PAQ-C) to assess their PA level and performed anthropometric measurements (body mass, height, and BMI) and physical tests for measuring sprint (20 m sprint), cardiorespiratory fitness (shuttle-run test), balance (single-leg stance), handgrip strength (handgrip), lower-limb power (standing long-jump), peak force (countermovement jump), and low-back flexibility (sit-and-reach) skills. Linear mixed-effects models were applied to determine the relationship between physical fitness and PAQ-C score controlling for individual characteristics (i.e., gender, age, BMI). Results reported significant relationships between PAQ-C scores and sit-and-reach, shuttle-run, long-jump, and sprint tests. All considered physical tests were correlated with gender, age, and BMI, except for sit-and-reach from BMI. The variance in age, gender, BMI, and PAQ-C score accounted altogether for 30.0% of the variance in handgrip, 23.0% in single-leg stance, 26% in sit-and-reach, 36% in shuttle-run, 31% in long-jump, 34% in sprint, and 31% in countermovement jump. Therefore, the relationship between PA and fitness is not absolute and depends on the test and children's characteristics.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2075-4663
- Volume :
- 11
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Sports (Basel, Switzerland)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 36668707
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/sports11010003