Milne N.1, Leong G.2, Hughes R.3, Hing W.1
1Bond University, Physiotherapy Department, Robina, Australia, 2Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Brisbane, Australia, 3Bond University, Health Sciences and Medicine Faculty, Gold Coast, Australia
Background: Childhood obesity is associated with poor health, education and life outcomes and remains a concern for health and education workers and policy makers alike. New tools are required to assist those who are working with children to make informed decisions regarding the appropriateness of referral to specialised services for investigation of underlying reasons for poor health and/or performance-related fitness.
Purpose: In order to assess the feasibility of using the KidFit Screening Tool to identify children who could benefit from specialised assessment and interventions relating to motor proficiency and physical fitness, this study aimed to
i) assess the predictive validity of the KidFit screening tool as a measure of health and performance-related fitness for children and
ii) assess the accuracy of the KidFit screening tool for identifying children with overweight or obesity, reduced motor skills and reduced cardiorespiratory fitness.
i) assess the predictive validity of the KidFit screening tool as a measure of health and performance-related fitness for children and
ii) assess the accuracy of the KidFit screening tool for identifying children with overweight or obesity, reduced motor skills and reduced cardiorespiratory fitness.
Methods: Data from fifty-seven children (mean age: 12.57±1.82 years; male/female: 34/23) who participated in two previously reported cross sectional studies were analysed. Children (n=57) completed the following measures: Speed and Agility Motor Screen (SAMS) and the Modified Shuttle Test-Paeds (MSTP) which make up the KidFit Screening Tool, a gold standard motor skills test; the Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOT2). The additional measures of BMI, peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) were also undertaken with a representative sample (n=25).
Results: Mean BMI percentile was 51.84 ± 33.94; mean motor proficiency percentile rank was 61.42 ± 30.46. Strong and significant relationships existed between the KidFit Screening Tool and; BMI (r2=0.779, p 0.001); Gross Motor Proficiency (r2=0.612, p 0.001) and VO2peak (mL/kg/min) (r2=0.754, p 0.001). The KidFit Screening Tool had a correct classification rate of: 0.84 for overweight and obesity, 0.77 for motor proficiency and 0.88 for cardiorespiratory fitness. The sensitivity and specificity of the KidFit Screening Tool for identifying children with: i) overweight or obesity was 100% (SE= 0.00) and 78.95% (SE=0.09); ii) motor skills in the lowest quartile was 90% (SE=0.095) and 74.47% (SE=0.064) and iii) poor cardiorespiratory fitness was 100% (SE=0.00) and 82.35% (0.093). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis revealed that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.895 for overweight and obesity, 0.822 for motor proficiency and 0.912 for cardiorespiratory fitness.
Conclusion(s): The KidFit Screening Tool has a strong and significant relationship with health and performance-related fitness measures of BMI, VO2peak and Gross Motor Proficiency and was found to be moderately to highly accurate for identifying children with and without overweight or obesity, motor skills in the lowest quartile and/or poor cardiovascular fitness.
Implications: The KidFit Screening Tool could be a valuable resource to assist with decision making regarding referral of children to specialised services (such as Physiotherapy) for detailed investigation of underlying reasons for poor health and/or performance-related fitness.
Funding acknowledgements: Bond University, Faculty of Health Science and Medicine seeding grant funding was obtained for this study.
Topic: Paediatrics
Ethics approval: Bond University Human Research Ethics Committee provided ethical approval for the protocols in this research study.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
