Physique, body composition and physical fitness of Finnish, Hungarian and American adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare the body structure and physicalfitness of Finnish (n=26), Hungarian (n=42) and American (n=55) adolescents (N=123). Height,weight, skinfolds, body fat percentages, circumferences and widths were recorded to define thesomatotypological characteristics and growth type of subjects. To define adolescents’ healthrelated fitness the Eurofit Fitness Test Battery was used. Differences between the ethnic groups interms of body composition and motoric performance were analyzed with ANOVA. The prevalenceof overweight was 9.3 % among Hungarians, 23.07% among Finns and 38.2 % among Americans.PLX is lower (F=10.941, P=0.002) in the Hungarian group compared to the Finnish adolescents.Finnish adolescents have higher VO2max in both sexes (34.98±4.08; 41.03±4.06 ml/kg/min)despite the fact that they have higher body fat than Hungarians. Comparison between the differentethnic groups suggests that adolescents need higher amount and intensity of training to achieve theproper physical activity level.

Keywords

• body composition
• physical activity
• quality of life
• aerobic performance