[Physical fitness of short-statured children at the early-school age]

Abstract

Introduction: Unique somatic build, structure, composition and functioning of the body of short-statured children bring about uneven chances compared to other children performing physical fitness test. Evaluation of physical fitness of short-statured children is even more important in the con-text of widely used in a school practice uniform assessment criteria.

Aim of the study: To assess the physical fitness of overweight or normal-weight, short-statured children, as measured by the EUROFIT test.

Material and methods: Short-statured (body height below 10th percentile) boys and girls aged 8 years took part in the study. Using weight-for-height index (WHI), the subjects were additionally classified into groups of overweight (WHI>1.28 SD) or normal-weight (-1.28 SD<WHI<1.28 SD), short-statured children. Body height and body mass were 119.9+/-3.19 cm and 25.5+/-3.52 kg in overweight boys (OWB; n=102) and 120.1+/-2.72 cm and 21.9+/-1.47 kg in normal-weight boys (NWB; n=219), respectively. The same values recorded for short-statured overweight girls (OWG; n=96) were 118.2+/-2.45 cm and 24.0+/-2.00 kg, and for normal-weight girls (NWG; n=162) 118.9+/-2.35 cm and 20.9+/-1.30 kg, respectively. The children were subjected to the following EUROFIT fitness tests: sit-and-reach (SAR), standing broad jump (SBJ), handgrip (HGR), bent-arm hang (BAH) and shuttle run 10x5 m (SHR). The results were standardised against the functions of means and standard deviations for age computed for the Polish population and compared with the t-test.

Results: Both groups of short-statured girls performed significantly worse compared with the general population with respect to HGR, and significantly better with respect to BAH. In boys, it was only true for the normal-weight ones. Compared to normal-weight girls, the overweight ones performed significantly worse with respect to SBJ.

Conclusions: Since the early-school age various forms of physical activity should be provided that would decrease the potential deficiencies in physical fitness of children. Systematically undertaken physical activity would be also one of the key elements in the treatment of obesity.