Health-related field-based fitness tests: a test battery and normative values for Italian primary schools

Purpose: Physical fitness is considered an important indicator of health. Health-related fitness qualities in children have been identified: cardiorespiratory fitness, musculoskeletal fitness, motor fitness, and body composition or body mass index (BMI) [1]. Growth charts for BMI that apply to the whole Italian population has been already studied [2]. Therefore, this study was conducted to establish normative values of fitness components from Italian children using field-based and well-standardized tests [3, 4] that can be easily applied in a school setting, and to create a Physical Fitness Performance Index (PFPI). Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the physical fitness among a random and large representative sample of schoolchildren aged 6–10 years. Fitness data were collected during the 2016–2017 school year from 25 schools in Lombardy. A sample of 5106 children (height 131.2 ± 10.1 cm, weight 30.5 ± 8.4 kg, BMI 17.4 ± 2.9 kg/ m2) was assessed using a complete test battery (six-minute walking test_6MWT, standing broad jump_SBJ, and 4 9 10 m shuttle run test_SRT). Gender and age-specific percentiles for the physical fitness tests were expressed as curves values (3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 97th centiles), and the PFPI was also calculated according to percentiles. Results: Boys scored higher in all the physical fitness tests when compared to girls (M: 6MWT, 616.7 ± 87.4 m; SBJ, 121.6 ± 23.8 cm; SRT, 14.5 ± 2.2 s; F: 6MWT, 607.9 ± 82.6 m; SBJ, 113.7 ± 23.6 cm; SRT, 15.0 ± 2.2 s; p \ 0.001). There was also a trend towards increased physical fitness levels as the age increased in both boys and girls (p \ 0.0001). Correlations between scores on individual test items were moderate to high (r from .549 to .700), and all individual test item scores significantly correlated with PFPI (p \ 0.0001). Conclusions: Primary schools are a favorable environment for implementing practices that support health and the PFPI can be used by teachers for easily rating children’s health-related fitness qualities