title: Relationship between socioeconomic status and physical fitness in junior high school students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research on physical fitness often regards socioeconomic status (SES) as a confounding factor. However, few studies investigate the impact of SES on fitness. This study investigated the impact of SES on physical fitness in both males and females, with an economic-based construct of SES.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample consisted of 954 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from a public, urban, Illinois middle school. The students participated in the FITNESSGRAM battery of fitness assessments as part of physical education. Descriptive statistics were calculated for height, weight, age, and sex. Students were grouped as high or low SES depending on whether they qualified for the federal free lunch program. A multivariate analysis of variance controlled for age and stratified by sex compared the raw scores from the fitness test for low and high SES students. Odds ratios stratified by sex were calculated for the likelihood of not achieving the FITNESSGRAM Healthy Fitness Zone standards among SES groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Girls of the low SES group had significantly lower scores on the FITNESSGRAM assessments and were significantly less likely to achieve Healthy Fitness Zone status than the girls from the high SES groups. For boys, SES was a significant main effect for body composition but not for the other fitness tests conducted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SES is related to physical fitness in girls but not in boys. A potential explanation for this is that boys are more likely to engage in vigorous leisure time activity regardless of SES than girls.
authors.affiliation: University of Colorado at Boulder, 4185 47th St., Unit C, Boulder, CO 80301, USA. Adam.Bohr@Colorado.edu
authors.forename: Adam D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Bohr
authors.forename: Dale D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Kelly R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Laurson
authors.forename: Peter J K
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Ronald W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Bass
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010809:Physical Fitness; D012572:School Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: child and adolescent health; health educators; physical fitness and sport