School fitness tests as predictors of adult health-related fitness

Relationships between adolescent physical fitness and adult health‐related fitness were investigated. Forty‐five subjects (20 males, 25 females) participated in physical fitness tests in 1976 and again in 2001. The adolescent physical fitness tests were distance running (2,000 m for boys or 1,500 m for girls), 50 m run, pull‐ups (boys) or flexed arm hangs (girls), shuttle run, a 30‐sec sit‐up test, standing broad jump, hand grip‐test, and sit‐and‐reach test. The adult health‐related physical fitness index (APFI), stratified by sex, was formed by summing the z‐scores of a bicycle ergometer test, sit‐up test, hand‐grip test, and sit‐and‐reach test. Height‐ and weight‐adjusted correlations between adolescence and adulthood for exactly similar tests for men and women were, respectively, 0.74 (95% CI, 0.44–0.89) and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.17–0.76) in sit‐and‐reach tests, 0.41 (95% CI, −0.04 to 0.72) and 0.55 (95% CI, 0.20–0.78) in sit‐up tests, and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.11–0.44) and 0.44 (95% CI, 0.05–0.71) in hand‐grip tests. When all adolescent tests were put in regression analysis together with BMI in 2001, the significant explanatory factors for APFI were distance running ability and the sit‐and‐reach test for men and sit‐up test, flexed arm hang, and BMI in 2001 for women. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:342–349, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.