Purpose: This study investigated the most recent estimates of underweight, overweight, and obesity prevalence in Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience random clustered sampling approach with 3,551 Pakistani school children aged 9 to 17 years from 52 schools throughout seven districts in central Punjab province. The CDC US 2000 was used to define underweight (BMI < 5th percentile), overweight (85th ≤ BMI < 95th percentile), and obesity (95th percentile ≤ BMI) for different school grade cohorts (primary, middle, secondary, and higher secondary schools). As a trend test, the Chi-square test was used. A Spearman correlation analysis (r) was used to determine the correlations between demographic variables and weight status. A regression analysis was conducted to explore the predictive power of demographic factors in relation to body weight. Results: In Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents, the prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity was 21.9%, 66.9%, 5.8%, and 5.4%, respectively. Significant correlations with body weight status were shown for individual demographic parameters (age, gender, school type, and school grade). Children in urban areas were more likely to be underweight, overweight, or obese than those in rural areas. Boys were found to have a lower BMI than girls. Accordingly, more boys than girls were underweight (odds ratio (OR) = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.33–1.85) and more girls had a higher risk of obesity than boys (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03–1.86). Lower grades showed more underweight (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.39–1.99) whereas higher grades showed a higher risk of obesity (OR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.41–2.57). Conclusions: In Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents, underweight, overweight, and obesity were prevalent. Compared with studies from 2011, the risk of overweight and obesity in Pakistan has decreased. However, this may also be due to the fact that students in Pakistan have a lower BMI compared to other countries. This issue has also been seen in the present study and is confirmed here by the high number of cases of underweight students. Future research studies should look into additional weight status correlates and factors. To evaluate the association between weight status and behavioral and other health variables, future research should use longitudinal or interventional designs.

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(1) Background: The search for talented young athletes is an important element of top-class sport. While performance profiles and suitable test tasks for talent identification have already been extensively investigated, there are few studies on statistical prediction methods for talent identification. Therefore, this long-term study examined the prognostic validity of four talent prediction methods. (2) Methods: Tennis players (N = 174; n♀ = 62 and n♂ = 112) at the age of eight years (U9) were examined using five physical fitness tests and four motor competence tests. Based on the test results, four predictions regarding the individual future performance were made for each participant using a linear recommendation score, a logistic regression, a discriminant analysis, and a neural network. These forecasts were then compared with the athletes’ achieved performance success at least four years later (U13‒U18). (3) Results: All four prediction methods showed a medium-to-high prognostic validity with respect to their forecasts. Their values of relative improvement over chance ranged from 0.447 (logistic regression) to 0.654 (tennis recommendation score). (4) Conclusions: However, the best results are only obtained by combining the non-linear method (neural network) with one of the linear methods. Nevertheless, 18.75% of later high-performance tennis players could not be predicted using any of the methods.

(1) Background: Children with greater physical activity (PA) may show a higher physical fitness (PF) and motor competence (MC) compared to peers with less PA. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), PF, and MC in 8- to 9-year old children in Germany and China. MVPA was differentiated into five PA settings: family sport, club training, school sport, leisure sport, and outside play. (2) Methods: This longitudinal study comprised N = 577 children (n = 311 girls, n = 266 boys) who were studied over a one-year period. Each child’s PF and MC was determined using sports motor tests. The children’s PAs were measured using a questionnaire. (3) Results: The children’s PA was positively associated with PF and MC. The MVPA-settings: family sport, leisure sport, outside play, school, and club sport, explained between 18 and 23 percent of the variance in selected PF and MC characteristics in a multivariate linear regression analysis. (4) Conclusions: An increase in the children’s MVPA might be an appropriate aim in the school sport in Germany as well as in the club sport system in China. Furthermore, family sport should be enhanced in Germany and outside play activities in China, respectively.