Normative Data for Musculoskeletal Fitness in 13,217 Children and Adolescents: The Croatian Fitness (CROFIT) Study

Authors

ŠTEFAN Lovro NELJAK Boris PETRIĆ Vilko KASOVIĆ Mario VESPALEC Tomáš

Year of publication 2022
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Sports Studies

Citation
Web https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02701367.2021.1873903?scroll=top&needAccess=true
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2021.1873903
Keywords Youth; standards; fitness; strength
Attached files
Description Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to establish normative data for health-related musculoskeletal fitness. Method: We recruited 13,217 children and adolescents aged 11-18 years (6,181 boys and 7,036 girls; 57% of girls). To evaluate musculoskeletal fitness, the following field tests were applied: standing broad jump (cm), sprint 20 m (sec), medicine-ball throw (dm), sit-ups in one minute (#), sit-ups in one minute (short, #), and squats in one minute (#). Curves for the 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th (median), 60th, 70th, 80th, and 90th percentiles were calculated using the Lambda (L), Mu (M), and Sigma (S) method. The LMS method assumes that the data can be normalized by using a power transformation and removing the skewness. Results: Median scores for standing broad jump, sprint 20 m, medicine-ball throw, sit-ups in one minute, sit-ups in one minute (short) and squats in one minute were 185.00 cm, 3.66 sec, 80.00 dm, 46.00 x, 56.00 x and 49 x in boys and 160.00 cm, 4.01 sec, 60.00 dm, 40.00 x, 49.00 and 43 x in girls. Effect sizes (ES) showed that boys performed better in all physical fitness tests (ES = 0.50-1.05), compared to girls. In general, age-related physical fitness changes showed the plateau between ages 15 and 16 in boys, while in girls, the plateau was reached at the age of 14. Conclusions: This study shows standards for musculoskeletal tests in youth.

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