Purpose
This study aims to determine whether there is a significant relationship between the Progressive Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER), the number of Healthy Fitness Zones (HFZ) achieved in a FitnessGram test battery, and the daily physical activity (PA) level obtained from pedometer readings.
Methods
Participants included 33 minority 3rd-5th grade students with 17 males and 16 females. There were 72.7% (24) and 27.2% (9) of Latinos and African Americans, respectively. Students wore a pedometer for seven consecutive days, four separate times throughout a semester. Daily PA was calculated by taking the mean number of steps per day. The Fitnessgram test was administered to assess student health-related fitness (HRF) with PACER indicating cardiovascular endurance. Overall HRF was determined by the number of scores in the HFZ (1-6).
Analysis/Results
Differences in PACER scores and daily PA by gender, grade, and ethnicity were examined by MANOVA. Pearson's Product moment correlations were computed to investigate relationships between daily PA, PACER scores, and the total number of scores in the HFZ. The results of MANOVA indicated that there were no significant differences in daily PA and PACER scores by gender [Wilks' lambda = .96, F (2, 27) = .535, p > .05]. There were significant differences by ethnicity [Wilks' lambda = .79, F(2, 27) = 3.571, p < .05] and grade [Wilks' lambda = .79, F(2, 27) = 3.492, p < .05] indicating that Latino students performed better on the PACER test (PACER=23.88 laps, SD = 10.58) than African American students (PACER = 14.67 laps, SD = 5.20) and fourth graders (PACER = 18.63, SD = 5.66) performed worse than third (PACER = 27.80, SD = 8.73) and fifth graders (PACER = 26.18, SD = 13.49). The correlations between daily PA and the PACER and daily PA and the number of scores in the HFZ were small and non-significant (r = .127, p > .05) and (r = .20, p > .05).
Conclusions
The results from the study support previously reported findings that children's daily PA levels are not significantly associated with cardiovascular endurance or overall HRF. Latino students scored better on the PACER test than African American students and the third and fifth graders performed better than fourth graders, exposing a potential need for intervention within these sub-populations. Interestingly, boys and girls scored about the same on the PACER test, questioning the need for different HRF standards based on gender. More research is needed to substantiate these findings.