Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children: The PREFIT project

Abstract

on behalf of the PREFIT project group 2 a PROFITH "PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity" a b s t r a c t Objectives: Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age-specific physical fitness reference standards for Spanish preschool children; and (2) to study sex differences across this age period and to characterise fitness performance throughout the preschool period. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: A total of 3179 preschool children (1678 boys) aged 2.8-6.4 years old from Spain were included in the present study. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT battery. Results: Age-and sex-specific percentiles for the physical fitness components are provided. Boys performed better than girls in the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility tests over the whole preschool period studied and for the different percentiles. In contrast, girls performed slightly better than boys in the balance test. Older children had better performance in all fitness tests than their younger counterparts. Conclusions: Our study provides age-and sex-specific physical fitness reference standards in preschool children allowing interpretation of fitness assessment. Sexual dimorphism in fitness tests exists already at preschool age, and these differences become larger with age. These findings will help health, sport, and school professionals to identify preschool children with a high/very low fitness level, to examine changes in fitness over time, and to analyse those changes obtained due to intervention effects.

Normative health‐related fitness values for French children: The Diagnoform Programme

“…The first finding from our study is that physical fitness levels were better in boys compared with girls, except for agility and flexibility, which agrees with results previously reported in children and adolescents . These differences may be attributed to the distinct development, growth, and maturation of boys and girls .…”

“…For boys and girls, the performance in physical fitness tests increased with increasing age. While studies of adolescents have shown a stagnation or decrease in physical fitness with age, an improvement in physical fitness with increasing age is reported in children . Our results suggest that older children have better motor competency compared with young children.…”

“…While studies of adolescents have shown a stagnation or decrease in physical fitness with age, an improvement in physical fitness with increasing age is reported in children. 14,28,33 Our results suggest that older children have better motor competency compared with young children. Berk suggests that motivation, concentration, the degree of motor skills, physical activity, and body composition could also be factors that explain this difference.…”

“…The first finding from our study is that physical fitness levels were better in boys compared with girls, except for agility and flexibility, which agrees with results previously reported in children and adolescents. [13][14][15][16]20,[27][28][29] These differences may be attributed to the distinct development, growth, and maturation of boys and girls. 30 In addition, cultural, social, and environmental factors may affect the development of motor performance and physical activity lifestyle.…”

Associations between Daily Step Counts and Physical Fitness in Preschool Children

“…Two sets of multivariate models were applied to investigate the relationships between preschoolers' step counts and physical fitness. Model 1 adjusted for no variables and Model 2 adjusted for potential confounding variables like BMI, a ge, a n d the accelerometer wear time [41,42].…”