Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Health-Related Quality of Life in School-Aged Children

Abstract

Purpose:This study examined the association between physical activity (PA), physical fitness, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among school-aged children.Methods:Participants were 201 children (91 boys, 110 girls; Mage = 9.82) enrolled in one school in the southern US. Students’ PA (self-reported PA, pedometer-based PA) and physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition) were assessed in the fall. The PedsQL4.0 (Varni et al., 2001) was used to assess participants’ HRQOL (physical and mental function) in the spring.Results:PA and four components of physical fitness were positively associated with physical and mental function. Path analyses suggested physical fitness mediated the relationship between self-reported PA and HRQOL (95% CI: [.53, 1.48]), as well as between pedometer-based PA and HRQOL (95% CI: [.54, 1.53]).Discussion:Results support the conclusion that enhancing children’s physical fitness can facilitate positive outcomes including improved health related quality of life.

Physical fitness and health-related quality of life in Brazilian adolescents: a cross-sectional study

“…cardiorespiratory fitness was positively associated with HrQOL, assessed using the PedsQL instrument, in physical and mental functioning dimensions [9]. Similar results were found in a sample of Portuguese adolescents.…”

“…The results found for muscular strength are contrary to those described in young people from the United States and Spain [9,11]. Gu et al [9] demonstrated that muscular strength is associated with HrQOL in physical and mental functioning dimensions.…”

“…Gu et al [9] demonstrated that muscular strength is associated with HrQOL in physical and mental functioning dimensions. In another study, muscular strength was associated with the general HrQOL and physical well-being dimension in schoolchildren of both sexes and with self-perception, autonomy, social support and peers and financial resources dimensions only in boys [11].…”

“…A recent study that included young people from 12 countries supports this lack of translation across populations as it determined that children of high-income countries tend to have higher HrQOL compared to low-to-middle income countries [6]. Furthermore, many previous studies that aimed to investigate the relationship between HrQOL and physical fitness in young people included children in samples [9,[11][12][13][14]. Due to changes on physical, psychological and behavioural characteristics that occur during adolescence, results from children cannot be generalized to adolescents.…”

“…Likewise, there is growing evidence that cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness are associated with higher HrQOL in children and adolescents who do not have chronic diseases [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Studies aiming to analyze the association between physical fitness and HrQOL in young people have been conducted in samples from developed countries, such as Australia, canada, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States [9][10][11][12][13][14].…”