Health-Related Fitness as Preventive Medicine
R. Joe Jopling MD1
1 Private practitioner and Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine
The decline of health-related fitness among children in the United States has brought about an interest in the topic by both professionals and the general public. The problem is pervasive and has seemed refractory to change.
In a recent survey, fewer than half the children taking the fitness test of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports passed. In 1984, only 2% of all children taking the "President's Challenge" could qualify for the award that required them to uniformly do well in performing chin-ups, sit-ups, a 1 mi run/walk, and a shuttle run. Only 60% of boys aged 6 to 12 years and only 30% of girls aged 6 to 12 years and only 30% of girls aged 6 to 17 years could do more than one chin-up. Similarly, only 64% of boys aged 6 to 12 years and only 50% of girls aged 6 to 12 years could run/walk 1 mi in less than ten minutes.
Declining fitness can result in an increase in cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, elevated serum cholesterol level, and physical inactivity. In a recent Centers for Disease Control epidemiologic study, physical inactivity was shown to be as strong a risk factor for coronary heart disease as the traditional risk factors of smoking, hypertension, and a high serum cholesterol level, and physical inactivity was three to six times more prevalent than the other risk factors.
