Correlates of Health-related Physical Fitness Levels of Chinese Middle school and primary school students

Objective: To investigate Chinese children and adolescent's health related physical fitness (HRPF) passing rates, and to analyze the associations between HRPF and sex, age, overweight/obesity. Methods: Weight, height, and health-related physical fitness were evaluated in 2478 Jiang Su children in China, aged 9 to 18 years. Analysis of variance was used to verify the associations. Results: In the total sample, 5.9% to 32% of girls and 19.2% to 25.4% of boys in the different grade groups passed all tests. BMI, Curl-up and Percent fat have a higher passing rate, while 20-meter PACER, push-up and Trunk lift performance have a lower passing rate. Primary school students in overall performance index are higher than the level of junior and senior high school. Boys have higher passing rates in push-ups compared to girls, but lower passing rates in 20-meter PACER. With increasing grade there is a lower probability of being fit. Overweight children are less likely to be fit in push-up and 20-meter PACER. Obese children are less likely to be fit in curl-up, push-up and 20-mile PACER than normal weight children. Conclusions: The results show low levels of HRPF in Jiang Su adolescents, especially in aerobic ability. HRPF passing rates are negatively with grades, overweight and obesity.