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

International Journal of Obesity volume 32, pages S49–S57 (2008)Cite this article

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 13.6±0.8 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 × 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.

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Acknowledgements

The HELENA Study was carried out with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034). It is also being supported by grants from CSD in Spain (109/UPB31/03 and 13/UPB20/04), the Spanish Ministry of Education (EX-2007-1124; AP-2004-2745; AP2005-4358) and the ALPHA study, a European Union-funded study, in the framework of the Public Health Programme (Ref: 2006120). The researchers from the University of Zaragoza, Spain (GVR, JPRL) are complementarily supported by FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE (Spain). The content of this paper reflects only the authors’ views, and the European Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Finally, we acknowledge all participating children and adolescents, as well as their parents and teachers for their collaboration. We also acknowledge our staff members for their efforts and great enthusiasm during the fieldwork. The authors thank Professor Olle Carlsson for his assistance with the statistical analysis of the data.

Author information

Author notes

  1. F B Ortega, E G Artero, J R Ruiz, G Vicente-Rodriguez, P Bergman, M Hagströmer, C Ottevaere, E Nagy, O Konsta, J P Rey-López, A Polito, S Dietrich, M Plada, L Béghin, Y Manios, M Sjöström and M J Castillo: See Appendix at the end of the supplement on page S82.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    F B Ortega, E G Artero & M J Castillo

  2. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Unit for Preventive Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden

    F B Ortega, J R Ruiz, P Bergman, M Hagströmer & M Sjöström

  3. Escuela Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Zaragoza, Domingo Miral, Zaragoza, Spain

    G Vicente-Rodriguez & J P Rey-López

  4. Department of Public Health, Unit of Nutrition and Food Safety, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    C Ottevaere

  5. Department of Paediatrics, Medical Faculty, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary

    E Nagy

  6. Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece

    O Konsta & Y Manios

  7. INRAN, National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition, Roma, Italy

    A Polito

  8. Division of Clinical Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Wien, Austria

    S Dietrich

  9. Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    M Plada

  10. Faculté 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

    L Béghin

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on behalf of the HELENA Study Group

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Correspondence to F B Ortega.

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Ortega, F., Artero, E., Ruiz, J. et al. Reliability of health-related physical fitness tests in European adolescents. The HELENA Study. Int J Obes 32 (Suppl 5), S49–S57 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.183

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