Original Article

International Journal of Obesity (2008) 32, S49–S57; doi:10.1038/ijo.2008.183

Reliability of health-related physical fitness tests in European adolescents. The HELENA Study

F B Ortega1,2, E G Artero1, J R Ruiz2, G Vicente-Rodriguez3, P Bergman2, M Hagströmer2, C Ottevaere4, E Nagy5, O Konsta6, J P Rey-López3, A Polito7, S Dietrich8, M Plada9, L Béghin10, Y Manios6, M Sjöström2 and M J Castillo1 on behalf of the HELENA Study Group11

  1. 1Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
  2. 2Unit for Preventive Nutrition, Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
  3. 3Escuela Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Zaragoza, Domingo Miral, Zaragoza, Spain
  4. 4Unit of Nutrition and Food Safety, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
  5. 5Medical Faculty, Department of Paediatrics, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
  6. 6Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
  7. 7INRAN, National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition, Roma, Italy
  8. 8Division of Clinical Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Wien, Austria
  9. 9Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
  10. 10Faculté de médecine, Université de Lille 2 Droit et Santé, CIC-9301-CHRU-INSERM de Lille IFR 114, Institut de Médicine Prédictive et Thérapeutique de Lille, Lille, France

Correspondence: Dr FB Ortega, Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain. E-mail: ortegaf@ugr.es

11See Appendix at the end of the supplement on page S82.

Top

Abstract

Objective:

 

To examine the reliability of a set of health-related physical fitness tests used in the European Union-funded Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA) Study on lifestyle and nutrition among adolescents.

Design:

 

A set of physical fitness tests was performed twice in a study sample, 2 weeks apart, by the same researchers.

Participants:

 

A total of 123 adolescents (69 males and 54 females, aged 13.6plusminus0.8 years) from 10 European cities participated in the study.

Measurements:

 

Flexibility, muscular fitness, speed/agility and aerobic capacity were tested using the back-saver sit and reach, handgrip, standing broad jump, Bosco jumps (squat jump, counter movement jump and Abalakov jump), bent arm hang, 4 times 10 m shuttle run, and 20-m shuttle run tests.

Results:

 

The ANOVA analysis showed that neither systematic bias nor sex differences were found for any of the studied tests, except for the back-saver sit and reach test, in which a borderline significant sex difference was observed (P=0.044). The Bland–Altman plots graphically showed the reliability patterns, in terms of systematic errors (bias) and random error (95% limits of agreement), of the physical fitness tests studied. The observed systematic error for all the fitness assessment tests was nearly 0.

Conclusions:

 

Neither a learning nor a fatigue effect was found for any of the physical fitness tests when repeated. The results also suggest that reliability did not differ between male and female adolescents. Collectively, it can be stated that the reliability of the set of physical fitness tests examined in this study is acceptable. The data provided contribute to a better understanding of physical fitness assessment in young people.

Keywords:

fitness, reliability, Bland–Altman, adolescents

Extra navigation

.
ADVERTISEMENT