Physical fitness for sedentary students: a common trend from six European countries

BACKGROUND: Several studies have assessed the fitness level of students to evaluate physical condition, compare groups with differences in social disadvantage and to define indexes for post training programs. Often, these large surveys compared groups without normative value that could define the real, practical gaps. Thus, the aim of this study was the definition of baseline values describing the fitness level of sedentary European students. METHODS: Standing broad jump (SBJ), sit up (SUP) and sit and reach (SAR) physical fitness tests were assessed on 31,476 students (age=11-13) from 6 European countries were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The effect size for multiple groups ANOVA was obtained to verify the biological consistence of differences. Then, weighted-means were calculated and stratified for age and gender. Overall, boys obtained SAR scores close to zero, while girls obtained results between 2 and 7 cm. The SUP test revealed similar results between boys and girls (about 20). SBJ performances were similar among countries (over 160 cm for boys and 150 for girls). CONCLUSIONS: Our results were aligned to other studies performed in other Continents or Countries and can contribute to the establishment of a large and objective reference to readily evaluate the physical fitness and health-related status of young students.