Collaborative evaluation and management of students' health-related physical fitness: applications of cluster analysis and the classification tree.
Health-related physical fitness has decreased with age; this is od immense concern to adolescents. School-based health intervention programs can be classified as either population-wide or high-risk approach. Although the population-wide and risk-based approaches adopt different healthcare angles, they all need to focus resources on risk evaluation. In this paper, we describe an exploratory application of cluster analysis and the tree model to collaborative evaluation of students' health- related physical fitness from a high school sample in Taiwan (n=742). Cluster analysis show that physical fitness can be divided into relatively good, moderate and poor subgroups. There are significant differences in biochemical measurements among these three groups. For the tree model, we used 2004 school-year students as an experimental group and 2005 school-year students as a validation group. The results indicate that if sit-and-reach is shorter than 33 cm, BMI is >25.46 kg/m2, and 1600 m run/walk is >534 s, the predicted probability for the number of metabolic risk factors ≥2 is 100% and the population is 41, both results are the highest. From the risk-based healthcare viewpoint, the cluster analysis can sort out students' physical fitness data in a short time and then narrow down the scope to recognize the subgroups. A classification tree model specifically shows the discrimination paths between the measurements of physical fitness for metabolic risk and would be helpful for self-management or proper healthcare education targeting different groups. Applying both methods to specific adolescents' health issues could provide different angles in planning health promotion projects.
National Siluo Agriculturial Industrial High School, Yunlin, Taiwan.
Jou-An
JA
Chen
Chi-Chuan
CC
Shih
Pay-Fan
PF
Lin
Jin-Jong
JJ
Chen
Kuan-Chia
KC
Lin
D000293:Adolescent; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000592:standards; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods*; D013334:Students; D013624:Taiwan