COMPARISONS OF YEARLY HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS TESTS FROM KINDERGARTEN TO FIFTH GRADE

Abstract

The study of change in children's health-related fitness (HRF) is important, as evidence supports the early onset of cardiovascular and other health risks. However, there is a scarcity of longitidunal studies of children's HRF due to various challenges. Purpose: To assess yearly longitudinal changes in children's HRF from kindergarten to fifth grade. Methods: Testing occurred each of 14 years as part of a school district's physical education curriculum for grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 at a climate-controlled YMCA. Variables included body mass index (BMI) from wt and ht (kg/m2), body fat % (BF) from sum of triceps and calf skinfolds, 1-mile run/walk (MR) in min, 1-min timed curl-up (CU), pull-up (PU), and sit-and-reach (SR) in cm with 23 at footline. Data from 349 males (M) and 340 females (F) were separately analyzed using listwise deletion for each parameter. Ages at K testing were M = 6.3 ± 0.3 and F = 6.2 ± 0.3 years. Ns retained for analysis from M and F data pools respectively were BMI: 257, 265; BF: 256, 264; MR: 204, 212; CU: 250, 259; PU: 181, 186; and SR: 169, 158. Results: Variable means from grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively are: BMI(M): 16.2, 16.7, 17.5, 18.3, 18.8, 19.7; BMI(F): 16.2, 16.8, 17.9, 18.7, 19.4, 20.2; BF(M): 15.9, 17.5, 20.0, 21.3, 22.8, 25.4; BF(F): 19.5, 21.0, 24.2, 24.9, 26.0, 27.4; MR(M): 12.1, 11.6, 11.2, 10.9, 9.9, 9.8; MR(F): 12.9, 12.6, 12.5, 12.2, 11.3, 11.2; CU(M): 18.6, 27.4, 31.5, 34.0, 36.1, 37.1; CU(F): 17.8, 25.5, 28.2, 31.1, 33.2, 33.7; PU(M): 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 1.8, 2.0, 1.7; PU(F): 0.8, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 0.9, 0.7; SR(M): 25.5, 27.2, 26.3, 26.5, 24.2, 24.8; SR(F): 28.1, 29.8, 29.8, 30.0, 29.5, 31.2. Using one-way repeated measures ANOVAs to compare the HRF measures at six grade levels, significant effects were found (p < .05) in all but PU(F). Follow-up was done using Bonferroni tests. BMI and BF increased significantly over time. MR(M & F) and CU(M & F) showed no significant improvement between grades 4 and 5. Eta2 was used to estimate effect size for M and F respectively as follows: BMI: .43, .51; BF: .39, .39; MR: .37, .23; CU: .54, .49; PU: .04, .01; SR: .09, .06. Conclusion: We found a general similarity between these results and findings from age-referenced, cross-sectional studies that sampled elementary-aged children from diverse geographic regions (NCYFS I, 1985; NCYFS II, 1987). For both genders, indices of body fatness incrementally increase. Pull-up and sit-and reach performances show little meaningful change, for either gender. We found NSD in either MR or CU between grades 4 and 5 (M & F).