HEALTH-RELATED PHYSICAL FITNESS, MOTOR PERFORMANCE AND BODY COMPOSITION IN BRAZILIAN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

The aim was to verify the behavior of motor development, body composition variables and health-related physical fitness of children and adolescents. Two hundred ninety-seven children aged between 8 and 14 years (146 girls and 151 boys) were administered the following assessments: a questionnaire on socioeconomic and physical activity level, an evaluation of biological maturation, anthropometric assessments, and physical fitness tests. The t-test for 1 sample, the t-test for dependent samples, and an analysis of variance with post-hoc Sheffé were performed. The two most common socioeconomic classifications were B2 (30%) and C1 (36%). Participants were predominantly pubertal (73%); more than 50% of the sample was classified as physically active. The participants were classified into healthy zones for flexibility and upper body strength. For the other variables, most of the sample did not reach levels established as normative ideals for healthy zones. It has been observed that the level of habitual physical fitness has not been sufficient to affect the health conditions of the children and adolescents of the sample, and, therefore, can affect quality of life. According to our findings, the health-related physical fitness is below the levels expected for health in all motor performance tests except for flexibility and upper body strength.