Although the benefits of physical fitness on health and prevention of diseases are extensively reported in the literature, there are few investigations about this theme, mainly among children and adolescents. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the health-related physical fitness (HRPF) components according to characteristics such as sex, age, type of school (public or private) and geographic area of the school (urban or rural), in individuals aged 7-15 years. The data collected belong to the Projeto Esporte Brasil (Brazil Sport Project) (PROESP-BR), and the HRPF components assessed were: body mass index (BMI), flexibility ("sit-and-reach" test), localized muscular resistance (LMR) (one-minute sit-up test) and aerobic capacity (nine-minute running test). The sample comprised 665 students, randomly selected from elementary schools of the Rio Grande County, Brazil. To compare the means of the measures and the tests according to the independent variables, simple and multivariate linear regression was used. Amongst the main results, it can be emphasized that the HRPF components were more associated with biological characteristics (sex and age), with no expressive differences by type of school, nor by geography area of school (indicators of socioeconomic level). Further studies are needed for the establishment of national reference parameters of HRPF of children and adolescents.
motor activity; exercise; child; adolescent; cross-sectional study
