Health-related physical fitness of rural and urban adolescents in relation to the reference criteria

Abstract

This study aimed at comparing the health-related physical fitness (HRPF) between adolescent males, who live in rural and urban areas, and analyze the HRPF in relation to the criterion-referenced standars established by AAHPERD (1988). Sample was composed of 286 rural and 435 urbans adolescents (10.50 to 17.49 years old). HRPF was measured according to AAHPERD: cardiorespiratory fitness (1600 m); muscular strenght/endurance (1-min sit-ups); flexibility (sit and reach); body fat (triceps + calf skin fold). To analyze the variables with normal distribution the Fischer's statistical test was used. For the variables that did not present a normal distribuiton the Kruskal-Wallis' test was used. The results and conclusions were as follow: the rural adolescents have a higher HRPF (p ≤ 0.05) than the urban ones. However, only 12.94% of all rural adolescents and 6.67% of all urban adolescents met the criterionreferenced. Otherwise, 88.81% of the rural and only 43.68% of the urban adolescents showed a desirable cardiorespiratory fitness in relation to the health.