Population-based trends and distributional changes in physical fitness among university students aged 19–22 years in China over three decades

This paper aims to assess population-based trends and distributional changes in physical fitness among university students aged 19-22 years from 1985 to 2019. Height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and physical fitness data for Han Chinese university students aged 19-22 years were obtained from eight successive cross-sectional Chinese National Surveillance on Students' Constitution and Health surveys from 1985 to 2019. Population-based trends were estimated by sample-weighted linear regression with a post-stratification population-weighted procedure. There was a moderate decrease in 50-m dash performance, a small decrease in standing long jump performance, large decreases in endurance run performance, and a negligible improvement in stand/sit-and-reach performance. Males experienced a large decrease in body pull-up performance, whereas females experienced a small improvement in sit-up 60s performance. There were moderate increases in mean height and weight from 1985 to 2019 and BMI from 2000 to 2019. The variability increased in most test-sex-age groups. Performance in 50-m dashes, endurance runs, standing long jumps, and stand/sit-and-reaches among the low-fitness population and performance in pull-ups and sit-ups 60s among the middle-fitness population decreased more or improved less. The government should implement differentiated health promotion programs, especially for those with greater health risks.