Secular trends in anthropometrics and physical fitness of young Portuguese school-aged children

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Aldo
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Costa, Mário, Reis, António, Ferreira, Sandra, Martins, Júlio, Pereira, Ana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10314/3601

Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyze secular trends in anthropometrics and physical fitness of Portuguese children. Methods: 1819 students (881 boys and 938 girls) between 10 and 11 years old, were assessed in their 5th and 6th scholar grade throughout a 20 years’ time-frame. ANCOVA models were used to analyze variations in anthropometrics (height, weight and body mass index) and physical fitness (sit and reach, sit ups, horizontal jump and sprint time) across four quinquennials (1993-1998; 1998-2003; 2003-2008; 2008-2013). Results: Secular trends showed the presence of heavier boys and girls with higher BMI in the 5th and 6th grade throughout the last 20 years. There was also a presence of taller girls but just until the 3rd quinquennial. Both boys and girls were able to perform better on the core strength test and sprint time but become less flexible over the years. Mean jumping performance remained unchanged for both genders. Conclusions: Our results indicate the presence of positive secular trends in BMI and in some physical fitness components (strength and speed) among the Portuguese youth.