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. 2021 Jun 4;8(6):476.
doi: 10.3390/children8060476.

Self-Reported Physical Fitness in Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Analysis on the Level of Alignment with Multiple Adiposity Indexes

Matteo Vandoni  1 , Nicola Lovecchio  2 , Vittoria Carnevale Pellino  1   3 , Roberto Codella  4   5 , Valentina Fabiano  6   7 , Virginia Rossi  6   7 , Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti  6   7 , Valeria Calcaterra  7   8
Affiliations

Self-Reported Physical Fitness in Children and Adolescents with Obesity: A Cross-Sectional Analysis on the Level of Alignment with Multiple Adiposity Indexes

Matteo Vandoni et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Obesity has been associated with several alterations that could limit physical activity (PA) practice. In pediatrics, some studies have highlighted the importance of enjoyment as a motivation to begin and maintain adherence in PA. Since self-reported physical (SRPF) fitness was related to motivation, the aim of this study was to investigate the existence of differences between SRPF in children with obesity (OB) compared to normal weight (NW). The International Fitness Enjoyment Scale (IFIS) questionnaire was administered to 200 OB and 200 NW children. In all the subjects, height, weight, and BMI and in OB children adiposity indexes including waist circumference (WC), body shape index (ABSI), triponderal mass index (TMI), and fat mass were measured. NW group showed higher IFIS item scores than the OB group (p < 0.01), except in muscular strength. In OB, the anthropometric outcomes were inversely correlated to SRPF outcome except for muscular strength. OB children reported a lower perception of fitness that could limit participation in PA/exercise programs. The evaluation of anthropometric patterns may be useful to prescribe a tailored exercise program considering individual better self-perception outcomes to obtain an optimal PA adherence.

Keywords: adiposity indexes; children with obesity; physical activity; self-reported physical fitness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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