Comparison of Physical Fitness Profiles Obtained before and during COVID-19 Pandemic in Two Independent Large Samples of Children and Adolescents: DAFIS Project

María Rúa-Alonso, Jessica Rial-Vázquez, Iván Nine, Jose Ramón Lete-Lasa, Iván Clavel, Manuel A. Giráldez-García, Miguel Rodríguez-Corral, Xurxo Dopico-Calvo and Eliseo Iglesias-Soler
Additional contact information
María Rúa-Alonso: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain
Jessica Rial-Vázquez: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain
Iván Nine: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain
Jose Ramón Lete-Lasa: General Sport Secretariat, Galician Government, 15707 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Iván Clavel: Galician Sport Foundation, General Sport Secretariat, Galician Government, 15707 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Manuel A. Giráldez-García: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain
Miguel Rodríguez-Corral: Galician Sport Foundation, General Sport Secretariat, Galician Government, 15707 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Xurxo Dopico-Calvo: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain
Eliseo Iglesias-Soler: Performance and Health Group, Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of A Coruna, 15179 A Coruña, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic restrictions might have negatively affected the health-related physical fitness of children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to contrast the body composition and physical fitness data of two independent samples of children and adolescents obtained from an online database (DAFIS project) before (n = 15,287) and during (n = 2101) the first academic year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed higher values for the body mass index ( p = 0.002), waist circumference ( p < 0.001), and waist to hip and waist to height ratios ( p < 0.001) during than before the pandemic, particularly in the case of boys. On the other hand, lower muscular fitness was observed for girls during the pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative analysis did not detect relevant changes in cardiorespiratory fitness in children or adolescents ( p > 0.05). Our data suggested that pandemic constraints might have affected body composition and muscular fitness of children and adolescents. These results might be of interest for designing specific interventions oriented toward counteracting the negative effects of pandemic restrictions on health-related physical fitness.

Keywords: schoolchildren; youth population; SARS-CoV-2; lockdown; confinement; anthropometry; muscle strength; agility; flexibility; cardiorespiratory fitness (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: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3963/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3963/ (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:7:p:3963-:d:780373

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 ().