Assessing physical fitness in preschool children: Feasibility, reliability and practical recommendations for the PREFIT battery

Cadenas‐Sanchez, Cristina; Martínez-Téllez, Borja; Sánchez-Delgado, Guillermo; Mora-González, José; Castro‐Piñero, José; Löf, Marie; Ruiz, Jonatan R.; Ortega, Francisco B.

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2016.02.003

Cited by 118 publications

(183 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…It is recommended to be used for health monitoring purposes at population level,15 as well as in the school setting. The 20 m shuttle run test (with minimal adaptations) is also reliable and valid in children as young as 3–5 years old 38 39. This test is part of the evidence-based ALPHA-fitness test battery for children and adolescents 15…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiorespiratory fitness cut points to avoid cardiovascular disease risk in children and adolescents; what level of fitness should raise a red flag? A systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2016

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cardiorespiratory fitness cut points to avoid cardiovascular disease risk in children and adolescents; what level of fitness should raise a red flag? A systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2016

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“…Differences between younger and older pre-schoolers were greater in P50 both for boys and girls (approximately 18 s of difference). It is important to note that, although this test showed low reliability 11 , we decided to provide its reference standard in order to help professionals to detect low levels of this fitness component. Nevertheless, researchers should be cautious when comparing pre-post values on two different occasions or after an intervention programme, due to the low reliability found.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 Feasibility, reliability, maximality, and practical recommendations of these tests have been published elsewhere. 11,12 Just before the measurements, we told a motivating fairy tale based on Cofito and his adventures on the Lipid Island with the aim to encourage children and make the tests more appealing. More information about this strategy has been published elsewhere.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children: The PREFIT project

Cadenas‐Sanchez

Intemann

Labayen

et al. 2019

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

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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.

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“…Nevertheless, the children in this study were very similar to average Swedish children with regards to weight and height as indicated by the z-scores in Table 1. The strengths of this study were that body composition was measured using accurate methodology [24] and the comprehensive physical fitness assessment was performed using the PREFIT battery [25], which has been evaluated in preschoolers [34]. Other strengths were that we could provide estimates of FMI and FFMI that were mutually adjusted for each other and the objective accelerometer data were included to adjust associations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations of Fat Mass and Fat-Free Mass with Physical Fitness in 4-Year-Old Children: Results from the MINISTOP Trial

et al. 2016

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Physical fitness is a powerful marker of health in youth. Studies in adolescents and adults suggest that higher fat mass is related to worse physical fitness. However, there is limited knowledge whether fat mass and fat-free mass are associated with physical fitness already in preschoolers. Baseline data from the MINISTOP (Mobile-based INtervention Intended to STop Obesity in Preschoolers) trial was utilized for this cross-sectional analysis. Body composition was assessed using air-displacement plethysmography. Fat mass index [fat mass (kg)/height2 (m)] and fat-free mass index [fat-free mass (kg)/height2 (m)] were used to provide height-adjusted measures of body composition. Physical fitness was measured using the PREFIT (FITness testing in PREschool children) battery, which assesses cardiorespiratory fitness, upper-body and lower-body muscular strength as well as motor fitness. In total, this study included 303 children (168 boys and 135 girls), who were on average 4.48 ± 0.15 years old. Higher fat mass index was associated with worse cardiorespiratory fitness (standardized β = −0.17, p = 0.002), lower-body muscular strength (β = −0.17, p = 0.003) and motor fitness (β = −0.21, p < 0.001) in regression analyses adjusted for age, sex and mutually adjusted for fat-mass index and fat-free mass index. Conversely, higher fat-free mass index was associated with better cardiorespiratory fitness (β = 0.18, p = 0.002), upper-body muscular strength (β = 0.39, p < 0.001), lower-body muscular strength (β = 0.22, p < 0.001) and motor fitness (β = 0.17, p = 0.004). Thus, fat mass and fat-free mass in preschoolers appear to have joint but opposite associations with physical fitness, an important marker for current and future health.

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Assessing physical fitness in preschool children: Feasibility, reliability and practical recommendations for the PREFIT battery

Cited by 118 publications

References 21 publications

Cardiorespiratory fitness cut points to avoid cardiovascular disease risk in children and adolescents; what level of fitness should raise a red flag? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cardiorespiratory fitness cut points to avoid cardiovascular disease risk in children and adolescents; what level of fitness should raise a red flag? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Physical fitness reference standards for preschool children: The PREFIT project

Associations of Fat Mass and Fat-Free Mass with Physical Fitness in 4-Year-Old Children: Results from the MINISTOP Trial

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