Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
In recent decades, the global obesity pandemic has reached worrisome dimensions. A study published in “The Lancet” in 2024 reports that the prevalence of obesity in many regions around the world has increased significantly since 1990 [1]. The situation has been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing since 2019, and especially by the stringent restrictions imposed by political decision-makers worldwide during the various lockdown phases [2]. This is particularly deleterious for affected children and adolescents, because childhood obesity correlates strongly with increased cardiovascular risk factors and a higher risk of coronary heart disease later in life [3].
In order to systematically assess the fitness and health status of children and adolescents, national and regional health monitoring systems have therefore been implemented in many countries. The assessment of health-related or performance-related fitness is often the focus of these monitoring systems. The key parameters of health-related fitness include body composition, cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle strength endurance, and flexibility [4]. At school, these parameters are usually measured using standardized field tests such as the 6‑min run for endurance, the standing long jump or medicine ball thrown for muscle strength, and the sit-and-reach test for flexibility. Studies show that children with obesity perform worse than those of a normal weight in many of these tests.
Anzeige
An Austrian longitudinal study [5, 6] that assessed the health and fitness status of primary school children aged 6–10 years over the period 2019 to 2022 generally confirms this. However, a notable exception is the medicine ball throw, which is used to assess muscle strength in the upper limbs. Children with obesity performed best here, followed by children with overweight, whereas children of normal weight performed worse and children with underweight performed worst (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1
Unpublished data comparing the mean values of motor classification levels for individual sports tests by weight category. Our own investigation into 824 school children (aged 7–9 years). Nine levels of classification were calculated, with the highest level (9) indicating excellent performance and the lowest level (1) indicating poor performance, with very good (8), good (7), above average (6), average (5), below average (4), weak (3) and very weak (2) in between; 6MR = 6 -min run, SLJ standing long jump, MB1kg = medicine ball throw (1 kg), 4 × 10SHR = 4 × 10‑m shuttle run, JS jumping sideways
×
These results can be explained by the greater muscle mass of children with obesity, which is developed by carrying an increased body weight [7]. In addition, recent studies have shown that children with obesity have better stability in static balance tests [8]. In addition to muscle strength, stability is also important when throwing a medicine ball, and children with obesity benefit from their increased stability. Therefore, children with obesity may have physical advantages in specific fitness disciplines, despite their health risks.
This can be seen in Fig. 1. Children with underweight or of normal weight performed best in most assessment categories, whereas those with morbid obesity performed worst. In contrast, opposite results were seen for medicine-ball throwing. In this category, children with obesity performed best, most likely because of greater body and muscle masses.
This leads to the question whether the use of medicine-ball throwing as a measuring tool for health-related fitness is appropriate, especially if not considering anthropometrics. Currently, most of the evaluation models are based on absolute performance values, without taking anthropometric characteristics such as body weight or height into account. This leads to distorted results, as the fitness of children with obesity could thus be rated too positively. A comparable problem can be seen in the standing long jump, where children of lower height are obviously at a significant disadvantage compared with children who are taller.
Anzeige
To minimize or avoid such systematic errors, assessment models should include anthropometric characteristics in the performance evaluation, especially by considering body weight and height when interpreting the results of the medicine-ball throwing.
In times of increasing obesity worldwide, it is essential to review and further develop the assessment basis of fitness parameters to ensure precise and fair results and to enable more accurate analysis of the (health-related) fitness of children and adolescents.
Declarations
Conflict of interest
G. Jarnig, M. van Poppel and R. Kerbl declare that they have no competing interests.
For this article no studies with human participants or animals were performed by any of the authors. All studies mentioned were in accordance with the ethical standards indicated in each case.
Open Access Dieser Artikel wird unter der Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International Lizenz veröffentlicht, welche die Nutzung, Vervielfältigung, Bearbeitung, Verbreitung und Wiedergabe in jeglichem Medium und Format erlaubt, sofern Sie den/die ursprünglichen Autor(en) und die Quelle ordnungsgemäß nennen, einen Link zur Creative Commons Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Die in diesem Artikel enthaltenen Bilder und sonstiges Drittmaterial unterliegen ebenfalls der genannten Creative Commons Lizenz, sofern sich aus der Abbildungslegende nichts anderes ergibt. Sofern das betreffende Material nicht unter der genannten Creative Commons Lizenz steht und die betreffende Handlung nicht nach gesetzlichen Vorschriften erlaubt ist, ist für die oben aufgeführten Weiterverwendungen des Materials die Einwilligung des jeweiligen Rechteinhabers einzuholen. Weitere Details zur Lizenz entnehmen Sie bitte der Lizenzinformation auf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de.
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
