20 Nov The Most Important Fitness Tests for Children and Adolescents: The Youth Fitness International Test (YFIT)!

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What if fitness in youth could be evaluated in a standardized way across the world? We could have a World Fitness Map and comparable estimates across countries… but for that, an evidence-based international consensus was needed and HERE IT IS, the Youth Fitness International Test (YFIT) battery! 

Read the article here.

Based on previous European and North-American systematic review projects, an evidence-based proposal of which fitness tests and protocols would be more valid, reliable, health-related, safe and feasible to be used at large scale in children and adolescents was conducted.

A Delphi survey was used to ask a large and geographical diverse group of fitness experts (=216) whether they agree with 1) the tests and 2) the protocols proposed. A high response rate (78%, 169 experts) and high agreement rate (≥85% in all tests and world regions) was obtained.

This consensus is named the Youth Fitness International Test (YFIT) battery, and includes weight and height (body mass index as a proxy of body size/composition), the 20-m shuttle run (cardiorespiratory fitness), handgrip strength, and standing long jump (muscular fitness).

As important as using the same tests is to use exactly the same protocols to obtain an standardized and comparable measurement. This article provides free-access protocols that have been refined based on comments from the Delphi fitness experts, ready to be used.

Standardizing fitness testing in youth will allow for surveillance across the world, future data pooling, development of international and regional sex- and age-specific reference values, health-related cut-points, county and region comparisons, etc. You can find more information in the paper.

Congratulations to all contributing authors (incl. @KaiZhan950218 @CCadenasSanchez @ruizruizjonatan @nystromdelisle @drjensacheck @katyw101 @Thayse_Natacha @carloscristimon @brooklynfraser_ @NiessnerClaudia @vonywera @SPrinceWare @JustinJLang) and the Delphi fitness experts.

Photo by NastyaSensei on pexels.

Citation:

Ortega FB, Zhang K, Cadenas-Sanchez C, et al. The Youth Fitness International Test (YFIT) battery for monitoring and surveillance among children and adolescents: A modified Delphi consensus project with 169 experts from 50 countries and territories. Journal of Sport and Health Science. Published online November 20, 2024:101012. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2024.101012