title: School fitness tests as predictors of adult health-related fitness.
abstract: Relationships between adolescent physical fitness and adult health-related fitness were investigated. Forty-five subjects (20 males, 25 females) participated in physical fitness tests in 1976 and again in 2001. The adolescent physical fitness tests were distance running (2,000 m for boys or 1,500 m for girls), 50 m run, pull-ups (boys) or flexed arm hangs (girls), shuttle run, a 30-sec sit-up test, standing broad jump, hand grip-test, and sit-and-reach test. The adult health-related physical fitness index (APFI), stratified by sex, was formed by summing the z-scores of a bicycle ergometer test, sit-up test, hand-grip test, and sit-and-reach test. Height- and weight-adjusted correlations between adolescence and adulthood for exactly similar tests for men and women were, respectively, 0.74 (95% CI, 0.44-0.89) and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.17-0.76) in sit-and-reach tests, 0.41 (95% CI, -0.04 to 0.72) and 0.55 (95% CI, 0.20-0.78) in sit-up tests, and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.11-0.44) and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.05-0.71) in hand-grip tests. When all adolescent tests were put in regression analysis together with BMI in 2001, the significant explanatory factors for APFI were distance running ability and the sit-and-reach test for men and sit-up test, flexed arm hang, and BMI in 2001 for women.
authors.affiliation: Pajulahti Sports Centre, 15560 Nastola, Finland. kesto@sci.fi
authors.forename: Lasse
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mikkelsson
authors.forename: Jaakko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kaprio
authors.forename: Hannu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kautiainen
authors.forename: Urho
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kujala
authors.forename: Marja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mikkelsson
authors.forename: Heimo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nupponen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001824:Body Constitution / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires