Introduction: Postnatal development has the potential to contribute to lung function in adult life, although associations between health-related parameters and lung function remains unclear in childhood. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between physical fitness and anthropometric parameters with lung function of healthy scholar-aged children. Method: A total of 418 children aged 7-8 years old participated in this study. The associations of fitness (handgrip strength, standing broad jump, and 800-m run) and anthropometric (waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI)) parameters with lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV )) were analysed using mixed-linear regression model. All measurements were performed using standard procedures for children. Results: Girls had significantly lower FVC values (p=0.006) and physical fitness (p<0.019) compared to boys. On mixed-linear regression analyses, handgrip strength (p<0.001) and WC (p<0.001) were independently associated with FVC, explaining together 26.6 % of its variance while handgrip strength (p=0.001), WC (p<0.001) and BMI (p<0.001), were independently associated with FEV , accounting together for 21.0 % of its variance in 7-year healthy children. Conclusions: Handgrip strength and anthropometric parameters were associated with lung function in healthy children highlighting the influence of torso development in lung function. Our results corroborate the need to promote physical fitness during childhood, especially among girls, in order to enhance their pulmonary function and protect from lung complications in later life.

Background: To study the impact of crawling before walking (CBW) on network interactions among body composition, the cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence and physical fitness, at age 7, and to assess the longitudinal association between CBW and body composition, the cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence, physical fitness and physical activity parameters, at age 7. Method: CBW, body composition, cardiovascular system, lung function, motor competence, physical fitness and physical activity were assessed in seventy-seven healthy Caucasian children. Results: Network analyses revealed that the crawling group had a greater number of links among all the studied variables compared with the non-crawling group. In the longitudinal study, using multiple regression analyses, crawling was independently associated with fat mass (%), fat-to-muscle ratio and systolic blood pressure, with models explaining up to 56.3%, 56.7% and 29.9% of their variance, respectively. Conclusions: CBW during child’s development is a possible modulator in the network interactions between body systems and it could influence future metabolic and cardiovascular health.

Introduction: Postnatal development has the potential to contribute to lung function in adult life, although associations between health-related parameters and lung function remains unclear in childhood. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between physical fitness and anthropometric parameters with lung function of healthy scholar-aged children. Method: A total of 418 children aged 7-8 years old participated in this study. The associations of fitness (handgrip strength, standing broad jump, and 800-m run) and anthropometric (waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI)) parameters with lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV )) were analysed using mixed-linear regression model. All measurements were performed using standard procedures for children. Results: Girls had significantly lower FVC values (p=0.006) and physical fitness (p<0.019) compared to boys. On mixed-linear regression analyses, handgrip strength (p<0.001) and WC (p<0.001) were independently associated with FVC, explaining together 26.6 % of its variance while handgrip strength (p=0.001), WC (p<0.001) and BMI (p<0.001), were independently associated with FEV , accounting together for 21.0 % of its variance in 7-year healthy children. Conclusions: Handgrip strength and anthropometric parameters were associated with lung function in healthy children highlighting the influence of torso development in lung function. Our results corroborate the need to promote physical fitness during childhood, especially among girls, in order to enhance their pulmonary function and protect from lung complications in later life.