Physical fitness development in relation to changes in body composition and physical activity in adolescence

Abstract

The decline in adolescents' physical fitness (PF) in recent decades has raised concerns about current population's possible future challenges with health and physical functional capacity. This study explored the associations between body composition, physical activity, maturation, and PF development in adolescents. Furthermore, PF development of adolescents with low initial PF was assessed. A 2-year observational study was conducted between spring 2013 and 2015. Nine comprehensive schools and their 10-to 13-year-old students were invited to participate in the study (1778), and a total of 971 students (54.6%) agreed. Cardiorespiratory fitness (20-meter shuttle run), muscular fitness (push-ups), fundamental movement skills (5-leaps test), body composition (bioelectrical impedance analysis), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (accelerometer), and pubertal status (self-assessment questionnaire) were measured at 1-year intervals. Latent growth curve modeling (LGM) was used to study PF development over time. Change in fat mass had the strongest and most coherent associations with PF development during adolescence. Fat-free mass, moderate-tovigorous physical activity, and pubertal status were associated with PF development, although not systematically. Subgroup analyses showed that PF development in the low fitness group followed a similar pattern as the whole population. However, their PF remained significantly lower throughout the 2-year period. The findings suggest that fat accumulation is an essential detrimental factor for PF development during adolescence. Actions to prevent excessive fat accumulation might help to prevent future declines in functional capacity. Indications that low fitness levels sustain during adolescence highlight the relevance of detecting these individuals and providing interventions already before adolescence. K E Y W O R D S cardiorespiratory fitness, children, fat mass, fat-free mass, fundamental movement skills, muscular fitness | 457 JOENSUU Et al. SUPPORTING INFORMATION Additional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Joensuu L, Kujala UM, Kankaanpää A, et al. Physical fitness development in relation to changes in body composition and physical activity in adolescence.

Percentiles and Principal Component Analysis of Physical Fitness From a Big Sample of Children and Adolescents Aged 6-18 Years: The DAFIS Project

“…Similarly, the prevalence of low cardiorespiratory fitness between participants with WHtR equals or higher than 0.5 was 48.6% and 16.9% in boys and girls respectively, but only of 19.1% and 9.3% in boys and girls with WHtR lower than 0.5. Therefore, these results suggest a relatively high prevalence of low cardiorespiratory fitness between children with unhealthy body composition, especially in the case of boys, supporting the influence of fat mass on the development of cardiorespiratory fitness recently reported (Joensuu et al, 2020). The analysis of this tendency is out of the scope of the current paper but should be addressed in future studies.…”

Interaction between physical activity and outdoor time on allostatic load in Chinese college students

“…AL reflects the cumulative effect of stress in daily life, as a multi-system comprehensive index, it can be used as an early predictor of poor health or function. Our study found a correlation between AL and PA and outdoor time, which were generally consistent with emerging evidence from research on physical fitness development of adolescent [ 29 ], research on PA outdoor of college students suggesting that low level of PA and outdoor time could have an adverse effect on physical health and appeared to be associated with increased activation in the nervous, cardiometabolic and immune systems.…”

“…The review from Gorman S et al indicated that outdoor time could synergise with physical activity to prevent metabolic dysfunction, particularly that related to lifestyle diseases of obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome [ 27 ]. A series of new studies have shown that outdoor physical activity has varying degrees of impact on metabolism, cardiovascular and immune systems [ 28 , 29 ], which can be used as indirect evidence to support the effect of PA and outdoor time interaction on AL. In the meantime, our study provides further evidence of the positive interaction effect between low PA and low outdoor time on AL and produce the different degree influence to the organism each physiological system.…”

Prevalence and Trends of Physical Activity in Thai Children and Young People: Pooled Panel Data Analysis from Thailand’s Surveillance on Physical Activity 2012–2020

“…By following more than 600 young people from 2017 to 2019, this study also found that girls had greater difficulty maintaining or improving their PA level. The sex-related difference in the PA transition could be explained by physical development theory, which argues that a boy’s development increases his bone and muscle mass to facilitate PA, while puberty for a girl increases fat mass that reduces her ability to be physically active [ 50 ]. For Thai children and young people, the low participation of girls in PA is also culturally constructed, since most organized sports are geared more toward males.…”