Changes in Physical Fitness during the COVID-19 Pandemic in German Children

Tanja Eberhardt, Klaus Bös and Claudia Niessner
Additional contact information
Tanja Eberhardt: Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Klaus Bös: Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
Claudia Niessner: Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: With the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, each country has developed strategies to try to control the virus. The restrictions and subsequent consequences also limited the possibilities and structures for being physically active. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine changes in physical fitness in a cohort that was investigated over an extended period. Physical fitness testing was conducted with the IPPTP-R in a primary school from a small rural community annually since 2012. Mean values of test items were calculated for each cohort. We conducted an ANCOVA to examine the differences between cohorts PreCOVID and 2020 as the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and between PreCOVID and 2021 as the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, no evidence for a negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical fitness in children between the ages of 7 and 9 years was found. In strength tests, performances increased when comparing the PreCOVID cohort and COVID-19 cohorts (Push-Ups: p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.032; p = 0.017, η p 2 = 0.006). No evidence for a change was found for endurance (6-min Run: p = 0.341, η p 2 = 0.001; p = 0.267, η p 2 = 0.001. The rural community maintained physical fitness despite restrictions and limitations through the environmental circumstances. Considering this, it is a positive example of how adequate long-term efforts promoting physical fitness make an impact and an active friendly environment helps to overcome COVID-19 pandemics limiting the structures for being physically active.

Keywords: motor performance; motor development; youth; effects; influences; cross-sectional study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9504/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9504/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9504-:d:878829

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().