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Physical fitness reference standards in Italian children

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Abstract

Physical fitness in childhood is considered a marker of current and future health. For this reason, there is a need for a simple but reliable test to assess the different components of physical fitness even at school during physical education lessons. However, standard values are required to correctly interpret the results of such tests. Hence, this study aimed to generate sex- and age-specific normative percentile values for health-related physical fitness in Italian children. To this aim, 30,472 children aged 6–11 years from the Friuli Venezia-Giulia region (Italy) were examined. The fitness test battery included the Léger test (cardiorespiratory), the shuttle test (agility), standing long jumps, frontal throws of a basketball (lower and upper limb strength), the sit-and-reach test (flexibility), and the standing balance test. Sex- and age-percentile curves were determined using the General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS).

Conclusion: The reference standards are provided as 1st, 3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 97th, and 99th percentiles in the form of both tables and charts and are roughly comparable with those of other European children.

What is Known:

• Physical fitness in childhood is considered a marker of current and future health;

• Several tests have been developed to assess physical fitness in children;

• There are general European reference standards for a series of tests of the main fitness components for children.

What is New:

• The present study provides specific reference standards for a series of tests that are indicative of the main fitness components and easily applied in children, particularly those in the Italian population;

• Standing balance test and basketball frontal throw test references in a wide sample of children;

• The performance of children in the present study was roughly comparable to that of other European children.

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Abbreviations

20-mSRT:

Léger test, also called 20-m shuttle running test

Pn:

n percentile

GAMLSS:

General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape method

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the children who participated in this study, their parents, teachers, and the directors of the Schools and the Institution for their cooperation. We thank the Sports Sciences PhD students at the School of Sport Sciences of the University of Udine (Italy), for their qualified assistance during the study. We thank the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Health Department, Public Education Department and Sport Department, Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Italian Olympic Committee, Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Italian Paralympic Committee, for their support during the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Udine, P.le Kolbe 4, 33100, Udine, Italy

    Filippo Vaccari, Federica Fiori, Giulia Bravo, Maria Parpinel & Stefano Lazzer

  2. Regional School of Sport, Italian Olympic Committee, Trieste, Italy

    Giovanni Messina

  3. School of Sport Sciences, University of Udine, Udine, Italy

    Giovanni Messina & Stefano Lazzer

  4. Regional Italian Olympic Committee, Trieste, Italy

    Rita Malavolta

Authors
  1. Filippo Vaccari
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  2. Federica Fiori
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  3. Giulia Bravo
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  4. Maria Parpinel
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  5. Giovanni Messina
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  6. Rita Malavolta
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  7. Stefano Lazzer
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Contributions

SL conceived the overall study, all the authors contributed to design the research and to make the measurements. GB analysed the data. FV wrote the manuscript with the help of FF and GB. SL, MP, GM, RM revised the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Filippo Vaccari.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The experimental protocol was approved by the University of Udine Ethics Committee on Human Research for Medical Science. Before the study began, the purpose and objectives were carefully explained to each child and his or her parents. Children gave their verbal consent, and written informed consent was obtained from their parents.

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Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by Gregorio Paolo Milani

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Vaccari, F., Fiori, F., Bravo, G. et al. Physical fitness reference standards in Italian children. Eur J Pediatr 180, 1789–1798 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-021-03946-y

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