Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Cross-cultural comparisons in children’s body composition, health-related fitness and physical activity (PA) are rare due to a shortage of comparable data, but such comparisons may help avert worrying global prevalence in childhood obesity, and declining fitness and PA.
METHODS: We drew samples of Canadian and English children (10 years, n=1630, 50% boys) and adolescents (15 years, n=1406, 56% boys) from three separate, regional studies that conducted comparable school-based assessments (2006-2011). For each age-sex group, we assessed betweencountry differences for body composition (mass, height, BMI, waist circumference), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF; 20 m shuttle run test), strength (handgrip) and self-reported PA. We used multiple regression to investigate whether between-country differences in fitness were explained by body composition and PA.
RESULTS: At any age, Canadian boys and girls were taller, heavier, and had greater BMIs and waist circumferences. English children had higher CRF than Canadians, which was explained by differences in body composition and PA. Canadian children were significantly stronger, partly due to greater body size. There were no between-country differences in adolescent boys. Canadian adolescent girls reported more PA than their English counterparts, but neither PA nor body size explained why Canadian adolescent girls had greater CRF or strength.
CONCLUSION: Future cross-cultural studies of PA should include indices of growth and fitness to better understand the relationship between intricate differences in PA and health outcomes.
Key Words: Physical fitness, physical endurance, muscle strength, body mass index, exercise
Résumé
OBJECTIFS : Rares sont les comparaisons interculturelles de la composition corporelle des enfants, de leur forme physique liée à la santé et de leur activité physique en raison du manque de données comparables, mais de telles comparaisons peuvent aider à éviter la menace de la prévalence mondiale inquiétante de l’obésité juvénile, ainsi que le déclin de la forme physique et de l’activité physique.
MÉTHODE : Nous avons extrait des échantillons d’enfants (10 ans, n=1 630, 50 % de garçons) et d’adolescents (15 ans, n=1 406, 56 % de garçons) canadiens et anglais de trois études régionales distinctes ayant mené des évaluations en milieu scolaire comparables (2006-2011). Pour chaque groupe d’âge et de sexe, nous avons évalué les différences entre les deux pays pour ce qui est de la composition corporelle (masse, taille, IMC, périmètre ombilical), de la capacité cardiorespiratoire (CCR; course navette sur 20 mètres), de la force (poigne) et de l’activité physique autodéclarée. Par régression multiple, nous avons cherché à déterminer si les différences entre les deux pays au chapitre de la forme physique s’expliquaient par la composition corporelle et l’activité physique.
RÉSULTATS : À tout âge, les garçons et les filles canadiens étaient plus grands, plus lourds, et avaient un IMC et un périmètre ombilical plus élevés. Les enfants anglais avaient une CCR supérieure à celle des Canadiens, ce qui s’expliquait par les différences dans leur composition corporelle et leur activité physique. Les enfants canadiens étaient significativement plus forts, en partie en raison de leur plus grande corpulence. Il n’y avait pas de différences entre les garçons adolescents des deux pays. Chez les filles, les adolescentes canadiennes ont déclaré faire davantage d’activité physique que les Anglaises, mais ni l’activité physique, ni la corpulence n’expliquaient pourquoi les adolescentes canadiennes avaient une CCR ou une force supérieures.
CONCLUSION : Les futures études interculturelles de l’activité physique devraient inclure des indices de croissance et de forme physique pour que l’on comprenne mieux le lien entre les différences subtiles des niveaux d’activité physique et les résultats sanitaires.
Mots Clés: aptitude physique, endurance physique, force musculaire, indice de masse corporelle, exercice physique
Footnotes
Acknowledgements: For concept, design and implementation of respective studies, we acknowledge Bryna Kopelow, Jennifer Fenton (both AS! BC), Sandra Gibbons, Ryan Rhodes, Lauren Sulz, Sandy Courtnall, Dona Tomlin, Douglas Race and Vina Tan (all HPSS), Daniel Cohen, Ayo Ogunleye (both EoEHHS) and many more research assistants and students for their invaluable and multi-faceted contributions to the respective study teams. We are indebted to school administrators, teachers, students and their parents who participated in the studies. AS! BC was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (OCO-74248), Heart and Stroke Foundation (BC Heart PG05-0327), 2010 Legacies Now and the BC Ministry of Health. The HPSS study was funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Prevention Initiative (# 21044) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CBO-109634). The EoEHHS was funded by the University of Essex Research Development Fund. CV was supported by a Government of Canada Fellowship.
Conflict of Interest: None to declare.
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