Physical Fitness Cut-Points for Early Detection of Obesity Risk in Preschool Children

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to establish cut-points for cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed-agility and to evaluate their ability to detect general and central obesity risk in preschool children aged 3–5 years. Methods: Briefly, 3179 Spanish preschoolers (52.8% boys) were evaluated. Physical fitness was assessed with the PREFIT battery. Anthropometry included BMI and waist circumference. Obesity risk was defined using age- and sex-specific percentiles according to criteria established by the World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Foundation. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to identify fitness cut-points. Results: Age- and sex-specific cut-points were established. For cardiorespiratory fitness, cut-points ranged from 9.5 to 23.5 laps in boys and 6.5 to 21.5 in girls across the 3– to 5-year age range. Muscular strength cut-points ranged from z-scores of −1.5 to 2.2 in boys and −1.6 to 1.9 in girls. Speed-agility cut-points ranged from 18.8 to 14.9 s in boys and 19.9 to 15.3 s in girls. Predictive accuracy was moderate-to-high (AUC range: 0.61–0.74 for cardiorespiratory fitness, 0.59–0.80 for strength, 0.49–0.71 for speed-agility). Conclusions: This study provides fitness cut-points for detecting general and central obesity risk in preschoolers. Early integration of physical fitness assessments into health monitoring may facilitate early identification of obesity risk.