Correlation between aerobic fitness and body composition in middle school students

BACKGROUND: Since correlations have been found between body composition and physical activity in different parts of the world, inactivity and poor physical condition likely contributes main factors in childhood obesity. This study was implemented to determine the relationship between cardiovascular fitness and body-composition in a group of Iranian middle school students. METHODS: In this descriptive study, subjects comprised of 12,946 students (10,531 girls and 2,415 boys aged 11-13 years) in the city of Isfahan. Height, weight, body-fat percent, body mass index, and cardiovascular fitness of the aforesaid students were measured by valid tests. RESULTS: This study showed that fat percentage and aerobic fitness (VO2 max) of girls were 24.73%, and 29.5 (ml/kg/min) and boys19.32% and 36.4 (ml/kg/min) respectively. Results also revealed that there was a negative significant correlation between fat percent and aerobic fitness of boys (r = -0.81), and girls (r = -0.77) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: To conclude, this study signifies that fat percentage augmentation leads to a decrease in aerobic fitness of children. Thus, fat percentage can be associated with different chronic diseases such as cardiovascular ones.