Reproducibility of motor competence tests and percentiles for children and adolescents living at moderate altitude in Peru.

Abstract

To assess the reproducibility of two motor competence (MC) tests: moving sideways and jumping sideways, and to estimate age and sex percentiles for children living at moderate altitude in Peru. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in the province of Arequipa, Peru. Weight, height, and waist circumference were assessed. Body mass index and ponderal index were estimated. The moving sideways and jumping sideways tests were assessed (both from the Körper test für Kinder test battery). The sample was made up of 885 girls and 897 boys aged 6.0-16.9 years. The intraevaluator technical error of measurement for both MC tests ranged between 1.75 and 3.9 repetitions in both males and females, whereas the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.77- 0.99. Agreement limits ranged between -7.3 and 6.8 repetitions for both tests. The 5th, 15th, 50th, 85th, and 95th percentiles were estimated using the Least-Mean-Square algorithm. The cut-off points for MC tests were low: < p15; medium: p15-p85; and high: > p85. Moving sideways and jumping sideways showed a high capacity for reproducibility. The proposed percentiles may be useful to assess MC and could be included and adapted as performance indicators in physical education.