on behalf of the PREFIT project group 2 a PROFITH "PROmoting FITness and Health through physical activity" a b s t r a c t Objectives: Reference values are necessary for classifying children, for health screening, and for early prevention as many non-communicable diseases aggravate during growth and development. While physical fitness reference standards are available in children aged 6 and older, such information is lacking in preschool children. Therefore, the purposes of this study were (1) to provide sex-and age-specific physical fitness reference standards for Spanish preschool children; and (2) to study sex differences across this age period and to characterise fitness performance throughout the preschool period. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: A total of 3179 preschool children (1678 boys) aged 2.8-6.4 years old from Spain were included in the present study. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT battery. Results: Age-and sex-specific percentiles for the physical fitness components are provided. Boys performed better than girls in the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility tests over the whole preschool period studied and for the different percentiles. In contrast, girls performed slightly better than boys in the balance test. Older children had better performance in all fitness tests than their younger counterparts. Conclusions: Our study provides age-and sex-specific physical fitness reference standards in preschool children allowing interpretation of fitness assessment. Sexual dimorphism in fitness tests exists already at preschool age, and these differences become larger with age. These findings will help health, sport, and school professionals to identify preschool children with a high/very low fitness level, to examine changes in fitness over time, and to analyse those changes obtained due to intervention effects.

Physical inactivity is a health problem that affects people worldwide and has been identified as the fourth largest risk factor for overall mortality (contributing to 6% of deaths globally). Many researchers have tried to increase physical activity levels through traditional methods without much success. Thus, many researchers are turning to mobile technology as an emerging method for changing health behaviours. This systematic review sought to summarise and update the existing scientific literature on increasing physical activity through mobile device interventions, taking into account the methodological quality of the studies. The articles were identified by searching the PubMed, SCOPUS and SPORTDiscus databases for studies published between January 2003 and December 2013. Studies investigating efforts to increase physical activity through mobile phone or even personal digital assistant interventions were included. The search results allowed the inclusion of 11 studies that gave rise to 12 publications. Six of the articles included in this review reported significant increases in physical activity levels. The number of studies using mobile devices for interventions has increased exponentially in the last few years, but future investigations with better methodological quality are needed to draw stronger conclusions regarding how to increase physical activity through mobile device interventions.

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La actual evidencia científica presenta diversos posicionamientos en la definición de los niveles de estrés en función del género y su influencia en el rendimiento académico. Los objetivos del estudio son: a) examinar las diferencias de género en el nivel de estrés académico, de estresores académicos y de estrategias de afrontamiento en estudiantes universitarios; b) evaluar la relación entre los niveles de estrés y el rendimiento académico. Participaron 162 estudiantes universitarios del Grado en Educación Primaria con una edad media de 23.7 (DE=5.68). El instrumento de medida utilizado fue el Inventario SISCO del estrés académico. También se recogió la nota media de expediente académico de los estudios de grado. Los principales resultados fueron: 1) El 96.1% de las mujeres y el 88.2% de los hombres presentan niveles de estrés académico; 2) “Las evaluaciones de los profesores” y “el tipo de trabajo que piden los profesores” son los estímulos estresores que muestran una diferencia estadísticamente significativa, percibiendo mayor estrés las mujeres, (p=0.008, p=0.005; respectivamente); 3) Las mujeres utilizan más “la ventilación y confidencias” como estrategia de afrontamiento, respecto al género masculino (p=0.001); 4) No se halló relación entre estrés y rendimiento académico.