Background: The objective of the study was to evaluate secular changes in the physical fitness of rural school youth, 7-15 years, in west-central Poland between 1986 and 2016.
Methods: The fitness of cross-sectional samples of school youth resident in the same 10 communities was evaluated in 4 decennial surveys: 1986-1417 boys/1326 girls; 1996-979 boys/947 girls; 2006-871 boys/843 girls; and 2016-1189 boys/1105 girls. Five tests evaluated speed (5-m run), agility (figure 8 run), explosive power (vertical jump), flexibility (stand and reach), and cardiovascular fitness (modified Harvard step test). Age- and sex-specific descriptive statistics were calculated by survey, while differences among surveys were compared in 3 broad age groups (7-9, 10-12, and 13-15 y) using analysis of variance with age and age squared as covariates.
Results: Speed and flexibility declined, while the jump and step test index changed variably across surveys. Although agility improved across surveys, the major improvement occurred between 1986 and 1996.
Conclusions: Performances of rural school youth on 5 tests of physical fitness changed significantly, but, variably, between 1986 and 2016. The results were generally consistent with other studies of Polish school youth that spanned a similar interval.
Keywords: health; pediatrics; physical performance.