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Published on: July 29, 2020
[Health-related physical fitness in Brazilian adolescents from areas having a medium/low Human Development Index]
Edio Luiz Petroski1, Adelson Fernandes da Silva, Adriana Bispo Rodrigues
1Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Física, Florianópolis, SC, Brasil. petroski@cds.ufsc.br
Objective:
Evaluating health-related, physical fitness (HRPF) in adolescents from a town having a medium/low Human Development Index (HDI).
Methods:
This was a descriptive study involving 627 adolescents (266 boys and 361 girls) from public schools aged 14 to 17. Anthropometric measurements were obtained and the students were given motor tests analysed according to the cut-off points suggested by US Physical Best fitness standards (1988).
Results:
Low physical fitness was observed amongst the students being studied, thereby presenting a health risk in terms of flexibility (40.8 %), muscle strength/endurance (98.5 %) and cardio respiratory fitness (35.4 %); 25 % of the students did not fulfil the body composition criteria. Overall classification in the three motor tests revealed a high percentage of students from both genders (boys: 99.6 % and girls: 100 %) who did not fulfil the preestablished criteria for having a satisfactory level of physical fitness.
Conclusion:
The results indicated that implementing intervention aimed at the school-age population having poor HRPF is of fundamental importance.
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