Cardiorespiratory fitness and health‐related quality of life in adolescents: A longitudinal analysis from the LabMed Physical Activity Study

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of adolescents, and to determine whether changes in cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with HRQoL over a 2-year follow-up. Methods: This is a longitudinal analysis with 571 Portuguese adolescents (274 boys and 297 girls) aged 12-18 years. HRQoL was measured with the Kidscreen-10 questionnaire; the 20 m shuttle-run was used to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness; socioeconomic status was assessed with the Family Affluence Scale; and pubertal stage was assessed with Tanner stages. Linear regression and analysis of covariance (ANCOVAs) were used to examine the associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and HRQoL. Results: HRQoL decreased over a 2-year period both in boys and girls (P < .05).Moreover, girls at baseline and at follow-up reported significantly lower HRQoL values than boys (between subjects P < .001). After adjustments for potential confounders, regression analyses showed significant cross-sectional associations between cardiorespiratory fitness and HRQoL both at baseline (B = 0.095; P = .023) and at follow-up (B = 0.090; P = .012). ANCOVA showed that adolescents whose cardiorespiratory fitness decreased over time exhibited lower scores of HRQoL at follow-up, compared to those with persistent high cardiorespiratory fitness; this held after adjustments for age, sex, socioeconomic status, and pubertal stage. Conclusions: Changes in cardiorespiratory fitness during adolescence were associated with HRQoL over a 2-year period. This study suggests that improving cardiorespiratory fitness could be an important strategy in improving the HRQoL of adolescents.

Predictors of the Psychosocial Health of Children and Adolescents With Obesity and Overweight: the Underappreciated Role of Physical Fitness

“…Our results con rm and reemphasize previous ndings on the positive association between physical tness and HRQOL in childhood [20,22], adolescence [21,24,47,48], and in the context of childhood and adolescent obesity [24]. In the present analysis, we furthermore found relative physical tness to be the strongest and only remaining determinant of two domains of self-concept: perceived scholastic and social competence.…”

“…Thus, prior research indicates that it is important to also include physical tness into the analysis of psychosocial health [19,20]. Studies with non-overweight children have yielded promising results in terms of psychosocial improvements associated with increased tness [17,21,22]. Knowing that tness is a mediator in the relationship between childhood and adolescent obesity and self-concept [23] and HRQOL [24,25], supports the need to further investigate its role among the predictors of psychosocial health.Therefore, the aim of this cross-sectional analysis was to examine determinants of weight-speci c HRQOL and subdomains of self-concept in the context of obesity in childhood and adolescence, while considering physical tness as an additional potentially relevant predictor.…”

Predicting Psychosocial Health of Children and Adolescents with Obesity in Germany: The Underappreciated Role of Physical Fitness

“…In this regard, our results demonstrate that physical fitness may be an important contributor to achieving program goals beyond mere weight loss. While its positive effect on physical health and weight management is undisputed, this study, on the one hand, identifies the importance of physical fitness for the personal self-concept and, on the other hand, reemphasizes the relevance of physical fitness for HRQOL in childhood [20], adolescence [19,24], and in the context of obesity [23]. Because it is associated with both physical and psychosocial dimensions [18,21,22], our results hence suggest that a focus on improving fitness could lead to more sustainable therapy outcomes than short-term weight loss [17].…”

“…Thus, prior research indicates that it is important to also include physical fitness in the analysis of psychosocial health [17]. Studies with non-overweight children have yielded promising results in terms of psychosocial improvements associated with increased fitness [18][19][20]. Knowing that physical fitness is a mediator in the relationship between childhood and adolescent obesity and self-concept [21,22] and HRQOL [15,23,24], supports the need to further investigate its predictive potential for the psychosocial health of affected children and adolescents.…”

Individual and combined impact of physical fitness on health‐related quality of life during adolescence: DADOS Study

“…Indeed, previous evidence has shown that physical fitness in children and adolescents is inversely associated with the risk of developing diabetes and obesity, as well as positively associated with skeletal health (Ortega et al, 2008b). Additionally, recent evidence has revealed that physical fitness is also positively associated with mental health and well‐being in adolescents (Bou‐Sospedra, Adelantado‐Renau, Beltran‐Valls, & Moliner‐Urdiales, 2020; Wheatley et al, 2020), suggesting a positive relationship with adolescents’ health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) (Yi, Fu, Burns, & Ding, 2019; Evaristo et al, 2019a).…”