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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 10, No. 2
Publication Date: April 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/aivp.102.12232. Abe, K., Mimura, K., & Fujii, K. (2022). Examination of Physical Fitness Evaluations of Severe Obesity During Junior High School.
European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(2). 561-573.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Examination of Physical Fitness Evaluations of Severe Obesity
During Junior High School
Keiko Abe
Osaka Seikei University
Kanichi Mimura
Osaka Seikei University
Katsunori Fujii
Graduate School of Business Administration and Computer Science
Aichi Institute of Technology, Toyota-city, Japan
ABSTRACT
Hypotheses on physical fitness and motor ability of obesity have not been clearly
proven. To be sure, several papers have been reported, but none of them have gone
beyond speculation. In other words, statistically warranted amounts of data on
obese people have not been obtained. This study examined physique, physical
fitness and motor ability measurements obtained in a large-scale investigation over
7 years (from the 2013 to 2019 academic years) based on the physical fitness
improvement action plan of City O The measurement results of children in the
second year of junior high school were used. In this study, the wavelet interpolation
model was applied specifically to the average value and standard deviation of
height, physical strength and motor ability (grip strength, sidesteps, sit-and-reach,
sit up, endurance running, 50 m dash, standing long jump, 20 m shuttle run,
handball throw) for second year junior high school students. An annual span
evaluation chart was then constructed. The height, physical strength, and motor
ability of second year junior high school boys and girls judged by the annual span
evaluation chart of BMI devised by Fujii [16] were applied to this evaluation chart.
As a result, the evaluation of physical fitness and motor ability of the second-year
junior high school students derived in this study was not a conjecture. Rather, a
clear judgment of "Somewhat poor" or "Poor" in the items except for grip strength,
sit-and-reach, and handball throwing was derived, and we suggest that a physical
fitness and motor ability evaluation for second year junior high school boys and
girls could be established here.
Keywords: Junior High School, Obesity, Physical Fitness, Motor Ability, Wavelet
Interpolation Model
INTRODUCTION
Obesity is defined by the World Health Organization as excessive accumulation of fat on the
body. The indicator that is most widely used for a simple determination of obesity is probably
body mass index (BMI). Fujii et al. [1] and Fujii [2] have already stated that BMI is a somewhat
mysterious index. However, it has an exceptional meaning in judging obesity, and evaluations
using it have been confirmed in all fields globally. In particular, the figure of BMI = 22 has been
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established as a standard weight. The grounds for BMI = 22 derive from a finding in a study by
Tokunaga et al. [3] that surveyed the results of a health checkup of 5,000 Japanese men and
women aged 30–59 years old, and BMI = 22 was found to have the fewest abnormalities.
Similarly, in an investigation of the relationship between BMI and all-cause mortality in an
epidemiological study, BMI of 23–24.9 was reported to be associated with the lowest mortality
rate [4]. Thus, maintaining a BMI of 22–25 is important for health.
Meanwhile, it is highly likely that obesity has effects on physical fitness and physical ability
associated with health. Kitagawa et al. [5], Hayashi [6], Kim et al. [7], Kim et al. [8], and Kitagawa
[9] compared the physical fitness of obese and non-obese people, and reported that obese
people had poorer performance in moving their own bodies, such as in the 50 m dash,
endurance running, and pull-ups. The reason was thought to be that since obese people carry
extra weight in fat on the body, they are under a greater burden when moving their bodies than
non-obese people. Thus, most obese people have a lower level of physical fitness per their body
weight than non-obese people.
In Japan, the percentage of obese people, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
[10], was 30.7% among males and 21.9% among females age ≧20 in 2018. These figures are
thought to be low considering the percentage of obese people in Western countries, which was
said by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) [11] in the US to be 39.6% in 2016.
Since obesity in Japan is judged to be BMI of ≧25, the percentage would decrease dramatically
if the BMI of ≧30 in Western countries was applied. In school-age children, according to the
School Health Statistics Research in Japan [12], the number of obese 17-year-olds showed a
decreasing trend from 12.90% in 2006 to 10.48% in 2018. Thus, a decrease in obesity could be
said to be seen in recent years.
However, although the relative frequency of obesity has decreased, the relationship with
disease has not improved. Rather, together with advances in medicine, the risk of lifestyle- related diseases from obesity has been demonstrated. In “Economics of Obesity” by Furugori
[13] indicated that obese people have a high prevalence of disease as well as higher medical
expenses and absentee rates and decreased abilities to act and think, and may cause decreases
in company productivity. This finding indicates that significant problems occur in workplaces
with obese employees. In other words, these problems permeate all activities up to the daily
living activities of obese people. If the physical fitness of obese people could be determined, it
would become possible to estimate the living activities of obese people.
It has been reported by Sawada [14], Hayashi [6], Kim et al. [8], and Chiba [15] that muscle
strength in obese people tends to be higher than in non-obese people. Chiba [15] in particular
reported that grip strength was positively correlated with body fat and weight, and that people
with much body fat and those who are heavy tend to have higher muscle strength. The reason
is said to be that in obese people, body fat acts as a burden on muscle in daily life. Reports are
also seen that flexibility is not susceptible to body type or physique [15], [16]. In this way, the
physical fitness of obese people has been shown to differ from that of non-obese people, and
there are reports that obese people have poorer physical fitness factors in terms physical
quickness and the muscle strength, muscle endurance and general endurance needed when
moving the body for long times.
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Abe, K., Mimura, K., & Fujii, K. (2022). Examination of Physical Fitness Evaluations of Severe Obesity During Junior High School. European Journal of
Applied Sciences, 10(2). 561-573.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.102.12232
However, these things have not been proven. The amount of data from which these findings
were derived was insufficient. Large amounts of data are not needed for clinical research on
obesity, but epidemiological surveys need to be done with around 300 obese people to derive
statistical significance. No studies on the physical abilities of obese people have been done with
more than 300 obese people as subjects. For example, Nakao et al. [17] analyzed the
characteristic physical abilities of obese children, but the subjects were 141 boys and girls from
the first to sixth grades of elementary school, among whom only 14 were obese children. Thus,
the amount of data on obese children was far too little. Consequently, details to date on physical
ability in obesity during youth, including the elementary school years, are thought to be simple
speculation. That is, the statistical significance from the amount of data on obese children has
not been ensured.
In this study, we used the measurement results for fifth grade elementary school students and
second year junior high school students from a detailed longitudinal survey of physique,
physical fitness, and motor ability obtained in a large-scale survey over seven years based on
the City O physical fitness improvement action plan. Next, we constructed an annual span
evaluation chart of physical fitness and motor ability from the measurement results of the fifth- grade elementary school students and second year junior high school students. In particular, in
this study we identified second year junior high school boys and girls with severe obesity
judged from BMI. We applied the physical fitness and motor ability results of the severely obese
children to the annual span evaluation chart and evaluated their physical fitness and motor
ability over time. We then derived a confirmation of the findings of each ability of the severely
obese children derived from the physical fitness and motor ability evaluation. The data
obtained in this study were data measured in elementary and junior high schools in all of City
O, ensuring huge amounts of data. Therefore, the findings provided here from the physical
fitness and motor ability evaluation of obese children, unlike previous speculative findings, are
confirmed findings.
METHODS
Subjects
The subject data were measurements of physique, physical strength, and motor ability from the
2013 to 2019 school years for boys and girls in the second year of junior high school in City O
in the Kansai region. In addition, data for boys and girls in the second year of junior high school
from the results of physical strength and motor ability surveys published by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for that same period were used. The
measured items included physique items (height, weight, BMI), and physical strength items
(grip strength, sidesteps, sit-and-reach, sit-ups, endurance running, 50 m dash, standing long
jump, 20 m shuttle run, and handball throw).
Construction of annual span evaluation chart
The mean value and standard deviation of physical fitness and motor ability test results for
second year junior high school boys and girls were calculated for the 2013 to 2019 school years,
and the wavelet interpolation model was applied to the mean value for each measured item.
The wavelet interpolation model was also applied to the mean values ± 0.5 SD and mean values
± 1.5 SD. Figure 1 shows the longitudinal trends in height in boys to which the wavelet
interpolation model was applied, and is also an evaluation chart of the annual span. As is clear
from looking at the annual trends, mean height tended to be around 164 cm. Tall boys tended
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to be around 172 cm, and short boys to be under 156 cm. These annual span evaluation charts
were constructed for the physical fitness and motor ability items.
Identification of children with severe obesity
In adults, severe obesity may be set as a BMI of 30 or more, but the criterion for adults cannot
be applied to severe obesity in second year junior high school students. Fujii [16] constructed
an aging span evaluation chart for BMI with findings that verified tracking to obesity in adults,
and severe obesity in second year junior high school students was identified by applying that
evaluation chart. Figure 2 is an evaluation chart that judge’s obesity, but the mean BMI of
second year junior high school students is about 20.5. When attempting to judge obesity, a
judgment can be made for people in the range of more than +1.5 SD, but if a judgment of severe
obesity is to be made, establishing a BMI of 25 or higher is thought to be appropriate. In this
study, we set BMI of ≧25 as the criterion for severe obesity in second year junior high school
students.
Figure 1. Annual span evaluation chart of height in second year junior high school boys
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Abe, K., Mimura, K., & Fujii, K. (2022). Examination of Physical Fitness Evaluations of Severe Obesity During Junior High School. European Journal of
Applied Sciences, 10(2). 561-573.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.102.12232
Figure 2. Obesity judgment chart based on changes in BMI with age
Wavelet interpolation model
The wavelet interpolation model is a method in which interpolation between data points is
done with a wavelet function (the basis function is the mother wavelet of Meyer) to
approximately describe the true growth curve from given growth data, and a growth distance
curve is drawn. That growth distance curve is differentiated and a growth velocity curve is
derived to examine the growth distance values of things such as pubertal peaks or the age at
menarche. The characteristics of the wavelet interpolation model are that it sensitively reads
local events and has a very high approximation accuracy. A detailed theoretical background and
the evidence for its validity have been described previously by Fujii [18, 19, 20], and so the data
analysis algorithm with the wavelet interpolation method will be omitted here.
RESULTS
Longitudinal statistics for height and weight in severe obesity
The results of a one-way analysis of variance conducted for the items of height and physical
fitness/motor ability in severely obese people from 2013 to 2019 revealed no significant
difference in any of the items. In other words, in these recent seven years no changes were seen
in the physical fitness of severely obese people. Therefore, since there were no changes in the
physical fitness of second year junior high school students over these seven years, we thought
we would construct an annual span evaluation chart for physical fitness and motor ability not
in single years but in a seven-year span. By devising an annual span evaluation, we attempted
to grasp the physical fitness and motor ability of severely obese second year junior high school
students in recent years. A span evaluation chart was constructed for the physical fitness and
motor ability items of grip strength, sidesteps, sit-and-reach, sit-ups, endurance running, 50 m
dash, standing long jump, 20 m shuttle run, and handball throw, and each physical fitness item
for severely obese people was applied to that evaluation chart.
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Application of physical fitness items in severely obese children to the annual span
evaluation chart
The physique item of height hovered around 164 cm in boys and 156 cm in girls, showing a
tendency to be in the “average” evaluation range of −0.5 SD to +0.5 SD. Boys in particular tended
to be at the upper limit of the average range.
In the physical fitness and motor ability items, grip strength was around 33 kg in boys and 26.5
kg in girls. Grip strength tended to be in a “Somewhat high” evaluation range of +0.5 SD to +1.5
SD in both boys and girls. For sit-ups, boys performed about 22 sit-ups and girls about 20, which
was judged to be “Somewhat low” in both boys and girls. In the sit-and-reach, boys tended to
reach around 40 cm and girls around 42 cm, trending in the standard range. In sidesteps, boys
stepped about 45 times and girls about 42 times, judged to be “Somewhat low.” In the 20 m
shuttle run, boys ran nearly 50 times and girls about 34 times, trending near −1.5 SD in both
boys and girls, which was judged to be “Low.” In the 50 m dash, boys ran the distance in about
9 sec and girls about 10 sec, which was the lower limit of “Somewhat low” for both boys and
girls. In the standing long jump, boys jumped about 170 cm and girls about 140 cm, trending in
the “Somewhat low” evaluation range. In the handball throw, both boys and girls tended to be
in the “Average” evaluation range of −0.5 SD to +0.5 SD. Finally, in endurance running both boys
and girls tended to be in the “Low” evaluation range of −1.5 SD or less.
Here, we would like to draw attention to the fact that the items of the 20 m shuttle run and
endurance running are both items that measure endurance ability, and so the number of
selected people was smaller.
Table 1. Basic Statistics for height and physical fitness motor ability in severely obese people
from 2013 to 2019 (Boys)
H e ig h t G rip
stre n g th S it-u p S it a n d
re a ch te st
R e p e a te d
sid e ju m p
20m
sh u ttle ru n 50m ru n S ta n d in g
lo n g ju m p
H a n d -b a ll
th ro w in g
E n d u ra n ce
ru n n in g
m ean 164.25 34.43 23.30 40.83 43.76 53.43
※N=112
8.95 167.33 19.93 520.19
※N=31
S D 6.69 8.29 6.80 9.11 8.68 21.18
※N=112
1.22 24.15 6.45 100.63
※N=31
m ean 162.95 32.88 22.11 40.89 44.28 46.19
※N=135
9.08 162.88 19.14 520.56
※N=25
S D 7.57 7.91 5.90 9.74 8.73 18.51
※N=135
1.06 28.66 5.95 81.23
※N=25
m ean 163.56 34.15 23.23 40.82 44.58 47.84
※N=179
9.03 166.11 19.41 475.7
※N=20
S D 7.44 7.72 5.98 10.51 8.97 18.69
※N=179
1.24 26.88 5.93 72.95
※N=20
m ean 163.27 32.95 23.12 40.90 45.23 47.42
※N=181
9.14 165.76 19.68 549.48
※N=23
S D 7.71 7.51 6.08 9.15 8.82 19.70
※N=181
1.15 28.27 5.51 79.87
※N=23
m ean 163.56 33.71 22.67 40.98 46.06 48.65
※N=163
8.97 167.51 19.79 503.27
※N=30
S D 7.93 7.37 6.89 10.40 8.26 18.00
※N=163
1.16 26.94 5.78 79.12
※N=30
m ean 162.20 32.72 23.41 42.33 46.30 48.58
※N=177
9.17 166.48 18.30 523
※N=10
S D 8.33 8.25 6.20 10.90 7.59 21.73
※N=177
1.27 31.63 6.01 140.3
※N=10
m ean 164.10 35.00 24.15 41.84 46.94 51.40
※N=191
8.86 172.73 19.86 532.25
※N=4
S D 7.55 7.96 6.33 10.03 7.54 20.06
※N=191
1.09 29.62 5.99 98.24
※N=4
2018
(N = 181)
2019
(N = 195)
2015
(N = 191)
2016
(N = 194)
2017
(N = 178)
O besity (B oys)
2013
(N = 141)
2014
(N = 152)
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Abe, K., Mimura, K., & Fujii, K. (2022). Examination of Physical Fitness Evaluations of Severe Obesity During Junior High School. European Journal of
Applied Sciences, 10(2). 561-573.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.102.12232
Table 2. Basic Statistics for height and physical fitness motor ability in severely obese people
from 2013 to 2019 (Girls)
Figure 3. Applied to an annual span evaluation chart for severely obese boys (Grip strength)
Figure 5. Applied to an annual span evaluation chart for severely obese boys (20m shuttle run)
H e ig h t G rip
stre n g th S it-u p S it a n d
re a ch te st
R e p e a te d
sid e ju m p
20m
sh u ttle ru n 50m ru n S ta n d in g
lo n g ju m p
H a n d -b a ll
th ro w in g
E n d u ra n ce
ru n n in g
m ean 155.21 27.62 19.20 41.19 41.13 34.15
※N=88
9.95 142.50 12.70 367.69
※N=32
S D 4.64 4.63 4.73 9.68 5.60 14.05
※N=88
0.87 21.29 3.98 40
※N=32
m ean 155.85 27.45 19.09 42.82 41.39 34.25
※N=100
10.02 141.44 12.93 377.13
※N=16
S D 5.23 5.12 5.52 9.24 6.89 13.62
※N=100
1.13 26.55 4.31 48.8
※N=16
m ean 155.25 26.22 19.57 43.81 41.46 31.42
※N=92
10.01 144.96 12.30 374.92
※N=12
S D 5.02 4.30 5.29 8.82 5.99 10.58
※N=92
0.97 22.15 4.24 48.94
※N=12
m ean 155.80 27.53 20.63 42.87 42.40 34.31
※N=89
9.85 145.83 12.32 362.08
※N=12
S D 5.49 5.51 6.02 9.11 8.39 13.81
※N=89
1.13 22.80 3.83 46.42
※N=12
m ean 156.95 27.43 20.20 43.68 41.75 31.49
※N=112
9.88 146.35 12.47 375.63
※N=19
S D 4.70 5.19 5.55 9.33 6.95 10.91
※N=112
1.01 19.33 3.84 72.45
※N=19
m ean 155.35 26.14 19.93 43.30 42.46 33.55
※N=113
9.78 148.70 12.49 385.33
※N=9
S D 5.03 5.04 5.29 9.48 6.54 11.63
※N=113
0.93 21.77 4.04 55.39
※N=9
m ean 155.82 26.44 20.48 43.39 42.74 33.94
※N=120
9.88 145.61 12.48 342
※N=3
S D 5.28 5.18 5.02 9.53 6.87 11.14
※N=120
0.96 22.45 4.35 43.85
※N=3
O besity (G irls)
2013
(N = 115)
2014
(N = 112)
2015
(N = 101)
2019
(N = 122)
2016
(N = 98)
2017
(N = 120)
2018
(N = 114)
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Figure 7. Applied to an annual span evaluation chart for severely obese boys (Standing long
jump)
Figure 4. Applied to an annual span evaluation chart for severely obese girls (Grip strength)
Figure 6. Applied to an annual span evaluation chart for severely obese girls (20m shuttle run)