Responsiveness of Health-Related Field-Based Physical Fitness Tests in Adults: The ADULT-FIT Project

The aim of the present study was to determine the responsiveness of health-related field-based physical fitness tests in adults. A total of 62 non-active participants aged 18-64 years were randomized into the intervention (n = 31) and control (n = 31) groups. The exercise program included three sessions/wk (60 min per session) of multicomponent exercise training for 12 weeks. The control group continued with their usual routines. Pre-post differences were explored with pairwise comparison analysis of variance for each group. The proportion of responders/non-responders and the percentage of the population that was expected to respond to the intervention were calculated. None of the tests changed pre-post in the control group (all p > 0.05 and Cohen's d ≤ 0.2). In the intervention group, overall, all tests were found to be responsive (all p < 0.01) after the exercise program with an effects size improvement of moderate to large (all Cohen's d > 0.50), except the body weight, waist circumference, and handgrip (Cohen's d ≤ 0.1). In absolute terms, the pre- and post-test differences in the intervention group were -0.94 kg in body weight, -0.84 cm in waist circumference, 1.30 stages in the 20-m shuttle run test, -82.62 s in the 2-km walk test, 62.50 m in the 6-min walk test, -0.33 s in the 6-m gait speed test, -0.71 s in the timed up & go test, -1.23 s in the 4 x 10-m shuttle run test, 1.35 kg in the handgrip test, 17.25 cm in the standing long jump test, 3.62 repetitions in the 30-s sit to stand test and 44.11 s in the prone bridging test. The proportion of individual responders was >46%, while the proportion of the population expected to respond was >85% in most of the tests evaluated, except for the anthropometric and handgrip tests. The proportion of individual responders was>46%, while the proportion of the population expected to respond was>85% in most of the tests evaluated. All the health-related field-based physical fitness tests were found to be responsive following a 12-week multicomponent exercise training program, except the anthropometric and handgrip tests, which were less responsive than the others and might require specifically targeted interventions to respond further.