Abstract
BackgroundThis study was designed to investigate the relation between health-related physical fitness and weight status in Hong Kong adolescents.Methods3,204 students aged 12-18 years participated in the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance (HKSOS) project in 2006-2007. Anthropometric measures (height, weight) and health-related fitness (push-up, sit-up, sit-and-reach, 9-minute run) were assessed. Body mass index (BMI) was computed to classify participants into normal weight, underweight (Grade I, II/III), overweight, and obese groups. The associations of health-related physical fitness with BMI and weight status were examined by partial correlation coefficients and analysis of covariance, respectively.ResultsMore boys than girls were overweight or obese (18.0% vs 8.7%), but more girls than boys were underweight (22.3% vs 16.7%). Boys performed significantly (P < 0.001) better in sit-up (38.8 vs 31.6 times/min) and 9-minute run (1632.1 vs 1353.2 m), but poorer in sit-and-reach (27.4 vs 32.2 cm) than girls. All four physical fitness tests were significantly positively correlated with each other in both sexes, and BMI was only weakly correlated with sit up and sit-and-reach tests in boys. Decreasing performance (P for trend < 0.05) was observed from normal weight to overweight and obese for push-up, sit-up, and 9-minute run in both sexes. From normal weight to Grade I and Grade II/III underweight, decreasing performance (P for trend < 0.05) for sit-up and sit-and-reach in both sexes and for push-up in boys was observed.ConclusionsThe relations between BMI and health-related physical fitness in adolescents were non-linear. Overweight/obese and underweight adolescents had poorer performance in push-up and sit-up tests than normal weight adolescents. Different aspects of health-related physical fitness may serve as immediate indicators of potential health risks for underweight and overweight adolescents.
Highlights
This study was designed to investigate the relation between health-related physical fitness and weight status in Hong Kong adolescents
This study aims to examine the relations of health-related physical fitness with Body mass index (BMI) and weight status among Chinese adolescents
Anthropometric parameters and health-related physical fitness were assessed in 3,204 Form 1-7 students aged 12-18 years (50.7% boys) from 4 schools who participated in the Hong Kong Student Obesity Surveillance (HKSOS) project in 2006-2007
Summary
This study was designed to investigate the relation between health-related physical fitness and weight status in Hong Kong adolescents. Previous studies on the effects of adolescent obesity have mainly focused on psychosocial problems [4,5,6] and typical risk factors of cardiovascular diseases [7,8] while findings on health-related physical fitness are scanty. Health-related physical fitness has the advantage that it can be measured non-invasively, and adolescents would probably find it much easier to relate to being unfit than being high in cholesterol or having chronic diseases in midlife. Overweight adolescents tend to have poorer muscular endurance (measured by sit-up) [9], cardiovascular fitness (measured by endurance run) [10,11], but similar flexibility (measured by sit-and-reach) [12,13], and even better isometric strength (measured by handgrip test) [14]
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