Diversity of parameters in the muscle strength evaluation of Brazilian school children and adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract

Muscle strength (MS) is considered important indicative of global health regardless of age or clinical condition. The aim of this study was to summarize evidence from research carried out in Brazil that investigated MS in school children and adolescents, showing the objectives, tests, protocols and quantitative of youngsters who met the health criteria for MS. Systematic review conducted in the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Sportdiscus, LILACS and Scielo databases, with complementary searches in reference lists. In all articles, the risk of bias was analyzed. Of the 15,609 articles initially identified, 27 were included, comprising data from 29,604 children and adolescents. The 27 studies included presented moderate (37%) and low risk of bias (63%). Three out of four studies investigating MS in children and adolescents were carried out in southern and southeastern Brazil (77.7%). It was found that 65.9% of boys and 58.2% of girls had adequate levels of MS for health, with results varying from 14.8% to 66.0% in girls and from 20.4% to 76.9% in boys. Several MS measurement protocols were identified; however, horizontal jump was the most used test to evaluate MS (59.2%). MS is a physical valence searched in children and adolescents and a variety of protocols are used. In addition, it is necessary to propose MS cutoff points based on health criteria for the accurate estimation of this physical valence in children and adolescents in Brazil.

Report Card Brazil: systematic review of muscle strength assessment in children and adolescents in Brazil

“…Muscle strength can be assessed in clinical, epidemiological and sports context using computer-assisted tests, tensiometry or maximum repetitions, which may include the use of body weight or recruitment of external loads 1,2,5 . This is necessary because muscle strength can manifest in many ways (e.g., maximum strength, power, endurance), which makes it difficult to propose a reference method/instrument for assessing muscle strength levels 8 and limits the comparison of results found in literature 1,2,5,9 .…”

“…Information regarding the prevalence of children and adolescents with muscle strength levels considered healthy and thus less likely of having adverse health events has been described in literature [9][10][11] . A study conducted with schoolchildren in Colombia estimated that 70.5% of boys, and 88.7% of girls had adequate muscle strength levels (measured using handgrip strength) 10 .…”

“…Another study carried out with schoolchildren in Canada found that 41.0% of boys and 53.0% of girls had adequate muscle strength levels (measured by handgrip strength) 11 . In Brazil, a systematic review study published by the Report Card Brazil project identified that 65.6% of boys and 58.2% of girls had adequate muscle strength levels in relation to health (information from handgrip strength, medicine-ball throw and horizontal jump measurements) 9 .…”

“…This study is an update of the systematic review published by Lima et al 9 on variable muscle strength investigated in the Report Card Brazil project. The updating of scientific evidence enables identifying data obtained from new studies, and thus analyzing how this information differs from previously reported findings, or whether these results corroborate the credibility of existing information 12 .…”

Normative values of handgrip strength in adolescents according to chronological age and sexual maturation

“…Muscle strength in Brazilian children and adolescents has been extensively studied, using different measurement methods, however, concerning HGS, there are still few studies conducted with such a population 11 . One of the factors that may be related to the limited number of studies that investigated HGS may be the absence of normative values for Brazilians.…”