Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Fatness Are Associated With Health Complaints and Health Risk Behaviors in Youth

We examined the association of cardiorespiratory fitness and fatness with health complaints and health risk behaviors in 691 (323 girls) Spanish children aged 6 to 17.9. Methods: Health complaints and health risk behaviors were self-reported using items of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children questionnaire. Weight and height were measured and body mass index was computed. Cardiorespiratory fitness was measured by the 20-m shuttle-run test, and youth categorized as fit/unfit. Results: Unfit youth were more likely to report health complaints sometime (OR: 2.556, 95% CI: 1.299–5.031; and OR: 1.997, 95% CI: 1.162–3.433, respectively) and health risk behaviors such as drinking alcohol sometime (OR: 5.142, 95% CI: 1.214–21.783; and OR: 2.413, 95% CI: 1.484–3.923) than their fit counterparts. Overweight-obese youth were more likely to report health complaints (OR: 1.732, 95% CI: 1.019–2.945; and OR: 1.983, 95% CI: 1.083–3.629, respectively). The analysis of the combined influence of fitness and fatness revealed that fit youth had lower health complaints index than the fat-unfit and unfat-unfit groups (all P < .05). Conclusions: Low fitness and overweight-obesity increased the risk of having health complaints in youth, yet high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness might overcome deleterious effects of overweight-obesity on health complaints

Reliability and Concurrent Validity of Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ): A Systematic Review

This study aimed to systematically review previous studies on the reliability and concurrent validity of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). A systematic literature search was conducted (n = 26) using the online EBSCOHost databases, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to September 2019. A previously developed coding sheet was used to collect the data. The Modified Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies was employed to assess risk of bias and study quality. It was found that GPAQ was primarily revalidated in adult populations in Asian and European countries. The sample size ranged from 43 to 2657 with a wide age range (i.e., 15–79 years old). Di erent populations yielded inconsistent results concerning the reliability and validity of the GPAQ. Short term (i.e., one- to two-week interval) and long-term (i.e., two- to three-month apart) test–retest reliability was good to very good. The concurrent validity using accelerometers, pedometers, and physical activity (PA) log was poor to fair. The GPAQ data and accelerometer/pedometer/PA log data were not compared using the same measurements in some validation studies. Studies with more rigorous research designs are needed before any conclusions concerning the concurrent validity of GPAQ can be reached

Teachers' Use of Fitness Tests and the Factors Influencing Their Use

248 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.It was found that teachers only had a slightly positive attitude toward fitness tests. The cognitive and affective domains were equally and strongly correlated to the overall attitude (r = 0.97). Most teachers (83%) used fitness tests in the last two years. The most frequently used fitness test was The President's Challenge (40.3%). No common purposes, problems, or reasons for using or not using fitness tests were identified. No significant difference was found in use of fitness tests between teachers who graduated in the last five years and those who graduated in earlier years. The results of discriminant function analysis suggested that teachers' overall attitudes, types of schools, and the grade levels were the key factors to predict teachers' use of fitness tests.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Physical education program changes from 2006 to 2010

This study aimed to examine changes in physical education (PE) programs nationwide from 2006 to 2010 by analyzing the data reported in the Shape of the Nation published by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Means and standard deviations for numeric variables in the reports were computed. For categorical variables, percentages were calculated. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test. The data from this study indicate a significant change in elementary PE as more states have mandated elementary PE and licensed elementary PE teachers. Significant increases in required PE units for high school graduation were also noted, indicating a positive change toward enhancing high school PE. However, the percentages of states with funding for professional developmentand required PE coordinator decreased significantly, suggesting that more work needs to be done if school PE is to provide the help and support requested by public health agencies. © 2013 Human Kinetics, Inc

Tracking Changes of Chinese Pre-Service Teachers’ Aerobic Fitness, Body Mass Index, and Grade Point Average Over 4-years of College

Although increasing attention has been given to student academic achievement, usually measured by grade point average (GPA), and fitness in children and adolescents, much fewer studies have been conducted in higher education settings, especially in China. This study investigated the longitudinal associations of aerobic fitness (AF), body mass index (BMI), and GPA in Chinese pre-service teachers at a university. A longitudinal research design was employed to track changes in AF, BMI, and GPA, for a total of 1980 students for four years. Multi-level growth models were used to examine the interactive changes of the above three variables. It was found that GPA and BMI increased each year, while AF declined dramatically at the fourth year. The three-way interaction among GPA, gender, and BMI was significant, suggesting females who were overweight/obese had lower GPA. The data from the current study suggested that AF did not impact students&rsquo; GPA. Class standing (i.e., the fourth year) and gender (i.e., females) need to be taken into consideration when designing interventions to improve student overall fitness and academic performance in Chinese pre-service teacher populations

The role of school in helping children and adolescents reach the physical activity recommendations: the UP&DOWN study

[Background] The aims were to: (1) examine the levels of physical activity (PA) during different time periods (ie, daily PA, school hour PA, recess PA, physical education classes [PEC] PA) in children and adolescents; and (2) identify the rate of compliance with the specific PA recommendations for these time periods.[Methods] The participants were 1925 (940 girls) children and adolescents from 40 Spanish schools. Hip-worn accelerometers were used to assess PA during different time periods.[Results] Boys and children were more physically active and had a greater percentage meeting the daily PA recommendation and the school-based PA recommendation than girls and adolescents, respectively. Compliance with daily PA recommendation was markedly higher than that with the school-based PA recommendation, regardless of sex and age groups (ie, 80.4% vs 24.1% for daily and school-based PA recommendations, respectively, in child boys). A very low percentage (ie, 9.7% and 1.2% of child boys with almost 50% of moderate-to-vigorous PA during recess and PEC, respectively) of students reached the recommended PA levels for recess and PEC.[Conclusions] Physical activity levels during school hours, recess, and PEC in children and adolescents are very low. Promoting PA in school settings is essential, especially in girls and adolescents.“Ramón y Cajal”. Grant Number: RYC‐2016‐20546. National Plan for Research: Development and Innovation (R + D + i) MICINN. Grant Numbers: DEP 2010‐21662‐C04‐00, DEP 2010‐21662‐C04‐01, DEP 2010‐21662‐C04‐02, DEP 2010‐21662‐C04‐03, DEP 2010‐21662‐C04‐04