Health-related fitness of American Indian youth

A Systematic Review of Musculoskeletal Fitness Among Indigenous Populations in North America and Circumpolar Inuit Populations

BACKGROUND

North American indigenous populations experience higher rates of obesity and chronic disease compared with nonindigenous populations. Improvements in musculoskeletal fitness can mitigate negative health outcomes, but is not well understood among indigenous populations. This review examines musculoskeletal fitness measures among North American indigenous populations.

METHODS

A total of 1632 citations were evaluated and 18 studies were included.

RESULTS

Comparisons of musculoskeletal fitness measures between North American indigenous men and boys and women and girls were generally not reported. The greatest left and right combined maximal grip strength and maximal leg strength among Inuit boys and men and girls and women were observed among 20-29 years age group. Maximal combined right and left grip strength declined from 1970 to 1990, by an average of 15% among adults and 10% among youth. Maximal leg extension among Inuit has declined even further, averaging 38% among adults and 27% among youth from 1970 to 1990. Inuit men demonstrate greater grip strength and lower leg strength than Russian indigenous men, whereas Inuit women demonstrate greater leg strength.

CONCLUSIONS

Further research is needed to better understand physical fitness among indigenous peoples and the potential for improving health and reducing chronic disease risk for indigenous peoples through physical fitness.

Children's Weight Gain and Cardiovascular Fitness Loss over the Summer

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of summer breaks on the body composition and cardiovascular fitness of elementary school children who participated in a multi-year school-based physical activity intervention. Participants were 404 children who had their height and weight measured and completed the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) during physical education classes at the beginning and end of the school year for three consecutive years. To examine the effects of time on health-related fitness data, general linear mixed effects models were employed. The results indicate that there was a trend toward an increase in body mass index (BMI) after the summer of 2015 (p = 0.958), and a significant increase in BMI after the summer of 2016 compared to time point 1 (p < 0.001). For PACER laps, there were trends toward decreases in PACER laps after the summers of 2015 (p = 0.515) and 2016 (p = 0.073). Summer breaks tended to attenuate the BMI and PACER lap improvements that were observed during the intervention. While school-based physical activity programming has had some successes in improving health-related fitness markers, the loss of these improvements over the summer is of concern to both practitioners and researchers. It is clear that additional efforts are needed to limit obesogenic behaviors during the summer months.

Physical Fitness and Metabolic Syndrome in Brazilian Adolescents: Validity of Diagnostic Health Criteria

We tested health criteria cutoff points from physical fitness variables proposed by the Fitnessgram program for detecting metabolic syndrome ( MetS) in a representative sample of 1,035 Brazilian adolescents (565 girls and 470 boys) aged 12-20 years. We studied five fitness tests: (a) back-saver sit and reach, (b) trunk lift, (c) curl-up, (d) push-up, and (e) progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run ( PACER), and we defined MetS through the criteria of the International Diabetes Federation. We described the predictive performance of each fitness test in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve ( AUC) estimates of the receiver operating characteristic method. The AUCs for four tests ( back-saver sit and reach, trunk lift, curl-up, and push-up) revealed low accuracy for identifying MetS in both sexes (0.50 ≥ AUC ≤ 0.60), but AUCs for the PACER test demonstrated good accuracy values between 0.72 (0.68-0.76) and 0.83 (0.78-0.89). Thus, cutoff points proposed in the Fitnessgram program for the PACER test offer an effective means of screening adolescents at higher cardiometabolic risk, which, for the age-group used in this study, should be from 40.3-44.3 ml/kg/min for boys and 38.6-40.1 ml/kg/min for girls.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of cardiorespiratory fitness among Indigenous populations in North America and circumpolar Inuit populations

Indigenous populations experience health disparities including increased obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease rates. Cardiorespiratory fitness is beneficial for maintaining positive health outcomes. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate cardiorespiratory fitness among Indigenous populations including comparisons across genders, Indigenous identities, age groups, decades, socio-demographic variables and in comparison to non-Indigenous groups. Included articles reported various cardiorespiratory fitness measures using maximal treadmill or cycle ergometer tests, 20 m shuttle run, 1 mile run/walk test and 6 min walk test. From 14 databases searched in March 2017, including MEDLINE, EMBASE and Scopus, 1069 citations were evaluated and 39 articles included, representing 32 investigations and 10,579 individuals. First Nations/American Indian (FN/AI) adults have greater cardiorespiratory fitness than Inuit. Inuit and FN/AI men and boys have higher cardiorespiratory fitness than women and girls. Lower cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome and a western lifestyle. Cardiorespiratory fitness has declined among Inuit adults, averaging 51.7 ± 7.9 mL·kg^-1·min^-1 in 1970 to 37.7 ± 6.9 mL·kg^-1·min^-1 in 2000. Among men, FN/AI have greater cardiorespiratory fitness compared to European-descents, and European-descents have greater cardiorespiratory fitness compared to Inuit. The 1 mile run/walk time showed that FN/AI boys, girls, and youth had faster times compared to European-descendants, but 20 m shuttle run showed that European-descent boys and youth advanced to further stages compared to FN/AI populations. Cardiorespiratory fitness is declining, and among some Indigenous populations to lower levels than European-descent populations. Improving cardiorespiratory fitness for Indigenous populations should be considered a primary health strategy.

Health-Related Physical Fitness among Young Goalball Players with Visual Impairments

Introduction

The purpose of our study was to determine the passing rates on health-related physical fitness tests of young goalball players. More specifically, we compared their passing rates according to gender and visual impairment classification.

Methods

Participants included 40 Brazilian goalball players with visual impairments (20 female [B1 = 7, B2 = 8, B3 = 5]; 20 male [B1 = 6, B2 = 4, B3 = 10]), with a mean age 17.3 (SD = 1.6). The Brockport Physical Fitness Test, a health-related, criterion-referenced protocol, was employed to evaluate percentage of body fat, shoulder stretch, back-saver sit and reach, trunk lift, curl-ups, push-ups, and the one-mile run or walk.

Results

A significant difference was found in passing rates between genders only in the one-mile run or walk. More than half the participants were able to pass in at least four out of the seven tests. No significant differences were found between groups regarding the proportion of athletes who reached the protocol standards.

Discussion

Irrespective of gender or visual impairment classification, the participants of this study had high passing rates on most tests. Nonetheless, athletes had low passing rates on specific areas (cardiovascular and muscular strength), which need to be acknowledged. Future studies with a bigger sample could seek to determine the effects of specific training regimens not only on youths, but also on adult groups.

Implications for practitioners

As a Paralympic sport likely to be of interest to visually impaired children and adolescents, goalball seems to be a feasible game to support the achievement of ideal physical activity levels in this population, leading to higher levels of health-related physical fitness.