Association of sleep patterns with psychological positive health and health complaints in children and adolescents.

PURPOSE: Psychological positive health and health complaints have long been ignored scientifically. Sleep plays a critical role in children and adolescents development. We aimed at studying the association of sleep duration and quality with psychological positive health and health complaints in children and adolescents from southern Spain. METHODS: A randomly selected two-phase sample of 380 healthy Caucasian children (6-11.9 years) and 304 adolescents (12-17.9 years) participated in the study. Sleep duration (total sleep time), perceived sleep quality (morning tiredness and sleep latency), psychological positive health and health complaints were assessed using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children questionnaire. RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation [SD]) reported sleep time for children and adolescents was 9.6 (0.6) and 8.8 (0.6) h/day, respectively. Sleep time ≥10 h was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of reporting no health complaints (OR 2.3; P = 0.005) in children, whereas sleep time ≥9 h was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of overall psychological positive health and no health complaints indicators (OR ~ 2; all P < 0.05) in adolescents. Reporting better sleep quality was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting excellent psychological positive health (ORs between 1.5 and 2.6; all P < 0.05). Furthermore, children and adolescents with no difficulty falling asleep were more likely to report no health complaints (OR ~ 3.5; all P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Insufficient sleep duration and poor perceived quality of sleep might directly impact quality of life in children, decreasing general levels of psychological positive health and increasing the frequency of having health complaints.

Percentile values for muscular strength field tests in children aged 6 to 17 years: influence of weight status.

The aim of this study was to provide percentile values for 9 different muscular strength tests for Spanish children (1,513 boys and 1,265 girls) aged 6 to 17.9 years. The influence of body weight on the muscular strength level across age groups was also examined. Explosive strength was assessed by the throw ball test (upper body), standing broad jump, and vertical jump tests (lower body). Upper-body muscular endurance was assessed by push ups, bent arm hang, and pull ups tests, and abdominal muscular endurance was assessed by sit ups, curl ups in 30 seconds, and curl ups tests. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Participants were categorized according to the BMI international cut-off values as underweight, normalweight, overweight, and obese. Boys had significantly better scores than girls in all the studied tests, except in the 3 upper-body muscular endurance tests in the 6- to 7-year-old group and in the push ups test in the 8- to 9-year-old group. Underweight and normalweight individuals showed similar strength levels. Both underweight and normalweight children and adolescents had significantly higher performance than their overweight and obese counterparts in the lower-body explosive strength tests and in the push ups test in boys and bent arm hang test in both boys and girls. In conclusion, percentiles values of 9 muscular strength tests are provided. Percentiles values are of interest to identify the target population for primary prevention and to estimate the proportion of adolescents with high or low muscular strength levels. The overweight and obese groups had worse scores than their underweight and normalweight counterparts, whereas the underweight group had a similar performance to the normalweight group.

Tracking Changes of Chinese Pre-Service Teachers' Aerobic Fitness, Body Mass Index, and Grade Point Average Over 4-years of College.

Although increasing attention has been given to student academic achievement, usually measured by grade point average (GPA), and fitness in children and adolescents, much fewer studies have been conducted in higher education settings, especially in China. This study investigated the longitudinal associations of aerobic fitness (AF), body mass index (BMI), and GPA in Chinese pre-service teachers at a university. A longitudinal research design was employed to track changes in AF, BMI, and GPA, for a total of 1980 students for four years. Multi-level growth models were used to examine the interactive changes of the above three variables. It was found that GPA and BMI increased each year, while AF declined dramatically at the fourth year. The three-way interaction among GPA, gender, and BMI was significant, suggesting females who were overweight/obese had lower GPA. The data from the current study suggested that AF did not impact students' GPA. Class standing (i.e., the fourth year) and gender (i.e., females) need to be taken into consideration when designing interventions to improve student overall fitness and academic performance in Chinese pre-service teacher populations.

Reliability and Concurrent Validity of Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ): A Systematic Review.

This study aimed to systematically review previous studies on the reliability and concurrent validity of the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ). A systematic literature search was conducted (n = 26) using the online EBSCOHost databases, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to September 2019. A previously developed coding sheet was used to collect the data. The Modified Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies was employed to assess risk of bias and study quality. It was found that GPAQ was primarily revalidated in adult populations in Asian and European countries. The sample size ranged from 43 to 2657 with a wide age range (i.e., 15-79 years old). Different populations yielded inconsistent results concerning the reliability and validity of the GPAQ. Short term (i.e., one- to two-week interval) and long-term (i.e., two- to three-month apart) test-retest reliability was good to very good. The concurrent validity using accelerometers, pedometers, and physical activity (PA) log was poor to fair. The GPAQ data and accelerometer/pedometer/PA log data were not compared using the same measurements in some validation studies. Studies with more rigorous research designs are needed before any conclusions concerning the concurrent validity of GPAQ can be reached.

The Role of School in Helping Children and Adolescents Reach the Physical Activity Recommendations: The UP&DOWN Study.

BACKGROUND: The aims were to: (1) examine the levels of physical activity (PA) during different time periods (ie, daily PA, school hour PA, recess PA, physical education classes [PEC] PA) in children and adolescents; and (2) identify the rate of compliance with the specific PA recommendations for these time periods. METHODS: The participants were 1925 (940 girls) children and adolescents from 40 Spanish schools. Hip-worn accelerometers were used to assess PA during different time periods. RESULTS: Boys and children were more physically active and had a greater percentage meeting the daily PA recommendation and the school-based PA recommendation than girls and adolescents, respectively. Compliance with daily PA recommendation was markedly higher than that with the school-based PA recommendation, regardless of sex and age groups (ie, 80.4% vs 24.1% for daily and school-based PA recommendations, respectively, in child boys). A very low percentage (ie, 9.7% and 1.2% of child boys with almost 50% of moderate-to-vigorous PA during recess and PEC, respectively) of students reached the recommended PA levels for recess and PEC. CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity levels during school hours, recess, and PEC in children and adolescents are very low. Promoting PA in school settings is essential, especially in girls and adolescents.

The influence of physical education on physical activity levels of urban elementary students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of physical education in shaping physical activity patterns. Seventy-one Hispanic and African American elementary students participated in the study. Students attended one 30- and one 60-min physical education class weekly. Pedometer steps were used to estimate physical activity. Data suggest that students did not engage in enough physical activity on a daily basis to incur health benefits. There were significant step differences in 0-, 30-, and 60-min physical education days, with the most steps occurring on 60-min days. Results from the study suggest physical education may be an important source of physical activity for Hispanic and African American students, especially girls, and may influence participation in physical activity outside of class.

Changes in K-12 physical education programs from 2001 to 2006.

In this study, we investigated the changes in physical education programs from 2001 to 2006 based on an analysis of data reported in The Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2006). Means and standard deviations for numeric variables in the reports were computed, and percentages were calculated for the categorical variables. The data indicated a significant increase from 2001 to 2006 in establishing state physical education standards. Mandated class size at all educational levels and required physical education units for high school graduation remained the same. The requirement for physical education assessment and mandated fitness testing did not increase significantly. Furthermore, there was no significant improvement in state regulations.

Percentile values for running sprint field tests in children ages 6-17 years: influence of weight status.

The aim of this study was to provide percentile values for six different sprint tests in 2,708 Spanish children (1,234 girls) ages 6-17.9 years. We also examined the influence of weight status on sprint performance across age groups, with a focus on underweight and obese groups. We used the 20-m, 30-m, and 50-m running sprint standing start and running start tests to assess sprint performance. We calculated body mass index (BMI) using and categorized participants according to the BMI international cut-off for underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese. Boys had significantly better scores than girls in all tests, except for the 30-m running sprint standing start and running start tests in the 6-7 year-old group. The underweight group had significantly better scores than their obese counterparts, whereas there were similar levels between underweight and normal weight individuals. The normal weight group showed a significantly better performance than their overweight and obese counterparts. Overweight boys had significantly better performance than their obese counterparts. In conclusion, the percentiles values of six running tests varied by age and gender The findings indicated that underweight youth did not have poorer sprint performance, and the obese group had lower scores than their leaner counterparts.