The Relative Age Effect, Height and Weight Characteristics among Lower and Upper Secondary School Athletes in Norway and Sweden

Dual career support among world-class athletes in Sweden: Performance, education, and employment

In order to help talented athletes to combine sport and education, different forms of Dual Career Support (DCS) have been developed in many countries. The effectiveness of these support systems have been debated. Most studies have investigated young athletes in the beginning of their careers, less is known about athletes who reached the highest levels. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the extent to which former Swedish world-class athletes have attended dual career sport programs at upper secondary school. A retrospective design was used with 274 former world-class athletes who answered a questionnaire. In order to investigate whether there was a relationship between attending a dual career sport school and athletic characteristics, as well as post career educational and employment outcomes, a series of Chi-square tests were conducted. The main results show that more than half of the athletes did not take part in any DCS. These results indicate that DCS in Sweden is not a decisive factor for success in sports as intended. Half of all participants, regardless of whether they studied at DCS, have studied at university, and all participants had a job at the time of data collection. The majority also consider that their financial situation has improved after their sports career.

Changes in Athletic Performance in Children Attending a Secondary School with a Physical Activity Profile

The longitudinal and multidisciplinary research project Malmö Youth Sport Study measured the sports results achieved by two cohorts of pupils using a variable named ACHIEVE, dividing the pupils into three categories (an elite group competing at the national or international level, a group competing at the district level, and a third group either not competing at all or below district level). This was assessed three and six years after baseline at age 13. An additional hypothetical measure, based on information from the athletes’ trainers, predicted the category the pupils were expected to belong to after twelve years (age 25). Social variables related to the ACHIEVE variable are sex, socio-economic position of the parents, ethnicity, completed secondary sports school, sports capital, and quartile of birth. After three years, 28% of the pupils belonged to the elite group and after six years, 26%. Thirty-two and 48%, respectively, had abandoned their elite efforts. The elite group remained fairly stable over time but fewer girls than boys advanced to the elite group. The pupils at the school have a homogenous middle-class background. We found little evidence that socio-economic factors affected ACHIEVE. Nearly all parents had been engaged in sports, either competing or as coaches. On admission to the school, there was a pronounced relative age effect (RAE). This remained after three years as the age was significantly different between the three groups but was reduced after six years. According to the prognosis made by the coaches, the elite group would be considerably smaller when the subjects reached the age of 25. The RAE was again significant in the prognosis. A further follow-up when the subjects are 25 years old will reveal not only what proportion of subjects are actively competing, but also if they are engaged in recreational sports, to what extent the RAE is present, and how accurately coaches can predict success.

Relative Age Effect of Sport Academy Adolescents, a Physiological Evaluation

The relationship between birth quarter distribution and physiological characteristics related to athletic skills, in adolescent sport academy students has not been fully investigated. In a cross-sectional study, we recruited 86 boys and 52 girls aged 12–14 years during their first term at a sport academy school. We measured body size, cardiac size, pulmonary function, body composition, lower body power, cardiorespiratory fitness parameters, and running endurance by standard methods and analyzed these estimates in relation to birth quarter by ANOVA. Birth quarter distribution in our cohort was compared with birth quarter distribution in the same ages in the whole of Sweden and analyzed by logistic regression. The academy had an overrepresentation of students born in the first quartile of the year compared to those born in the last quartile (odds ratio 2.3 (95% CI: 1.1–4.7)). When comparing the physiological characteristics between birth quarters, uniformity is prominent since out of 26 performed physiological and anthropometric tests only four showed statistically significant group differences. We thus believe that the selection process to the sport academy favours athletes with higher chronological age, i.e., a so-called relative age effect is present.

Socioecological and biological associations of lower levels of physical activity in 8-year-old children: a 2-year prospective study

OBJECTIVES

Evaluate if socioecological and biological factors, at the age of 8 years, are associated with lower level of physical activity (PA) 2 years later.

METHOD

In a study cohort of 199 children aged 7.8±0.6 years, we used questionnaires and physical measurements to evaluate biological (eg, sex), social (eg, parental PA) and environmental (eg, school settings) factors. Objective PA was measured 2 years later with accelerometers. General PA (GPA) was defined as mean counts per minute (cpm) and moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) as min/day >3500 cpm. We used analysis of covariance to evaluate if socioecological factors at age 8 are associated with level of PA 2 years later.

RESULTS

Daily GPA was 690.5±216.6 cpm and the children spent 40.9±18.3 min on MVPA. Female sex is associated with -131.1 (-183.4, -78.7) cpm GPA, each 10 cm shorter body height with -48.7 (-94.8, -26.5), each unit higher body mass index (BMI) with -26.0 (-37.5, -14.5) and allocation to 60 min school PA/week with -73.8 (-131.5, -16.2) compared with allocation to 200 min school PA/week. Female sex is associated with -10.3 (-14.8, -5.7) min of MVPA and each unit higher BMI with -1.9 (-2.9, -0.9) min.

CONCLUSION

Female sex, shorter body height and higher BMI are at age 8 years associated with lower level of PA 2 years later. It appears possible to increase PA by daily school PA.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT00633828.