title: Tracking of health-related physical fitness for middle school boys and girls.
abstract: This study tracked health-related physical fitness in 11 year-old youths over their three-year middle school period. The Fitnessgram test battery was administered four times to 116 boys and 129 girls in the US during the period. Results indicated that BMI and estimated %BF tracked best, followed by PACER, sit and reach, push-up, and curl-up. Fitness levels in the estimated %BF and curl-up in the least fit quartiles (at baseline) tracked better than those in the fittest quartiles, and initially at-risk youths had higher probabilities of falling into at-risk categories three years later than those initially in healthy groups. In addition, boys became healthier in the estimated %BF and girls tracked poorer than boys in the PACER. Further, the numbers of girls in the at-risk categories increased considerably in four fitness measures (estimated %BF, BMI, PACER, and push-up) during the middle school period, whereas boys' corresponding numbers either dropped or did not change in all the fitness measures.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Physical Education, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Wenhao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Traci D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Zillifro
authors.forename: Randall A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Nichols
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010806:Physical Education and Training / Q000379:methods*; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors