‘PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST PERFORMANCE IN CHILDREN& ITS CORRELATION WITH ANTHROPOMETRIC PARAMETERS: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY’

Abstract

Introduction-It is observed that promoting healthy physical activity behaviors in children has immediate impacts on health and well being of children and serves as powerful strategy to prevent or minimize the occurrence of chronic disease in later life.

Objectives-To estimate the scores of various fitness tests performed by the study subjects and its relation with anthropometric measurements.

Methods- This prospective study included 270 children of 8 to 12 years age who fulfilled all inclusion criteria. They were selected randomly from six schools in Gwalior. Their height, weight and BMI were noted. Fitness tests included in this study were - curl ups, shuttle run, v-sit and reach, Endurance run and walk, pull-ups.

Results-Among 270 children between 8-12 years age 62.6% were male and majority of the subjects belong to lower middle class (45.9%). It was observed that boys performed better than girls in curl-ups, shuttle run, Endurance run- walk, pull-up(p<0.001). Girls performed better in v sit reach test (p<0.001). Mean value for boys in curl-up test-39.12±3.71 repetitions, in shuttle run-11.292±0.5 seconds, endurance run walk-8.9479±0.6minutes, pull-ups- 3.28±1.091repetetions, v sit reach- 3.186±0.5779 cm. Mean value for Girls in curl-up test-36.13±3.507repetetions, shuttle run-11.658±0.805 seconds, endurance run walk-10.1564±0.78 minutes, pull-ups-0.96±0.665repetetions, v sit reach-5.617±0.9222cm. Difference among various BMI groups was not significant for both boys and girls except for shuttle run and endurance run/walk in boys and curl-ups in girls.

Conclusion- The present study concludes that age and sex significantlycorrelate with physical fitness test. Boys perform better in all physical fitness tests except v- sit and reach. Girls perform better in flexibility test. BMI showed weak correlation with all physical tests.