Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a change in life habits on a change in physical fitness in Japanese children using 3-year longitudinal data. The participants were 456 Japanese children aged 6-9 (230 boys, and 226 girls). Data were collected on 3 occasions over a one year period. Survey items included life habits (exercise habits, eating habit, sleeping habit, and TV/video game viewing habit), physical fitness (Japan Fitness Test : Grip Strength, Sit-ups, Sit & Reach, Side Steps, 20 m Shuttle Running, 50 m Dash, Standing Long Jump, and Handball Throwing). Physical fitness in participants was graded into five categories (A-E) according to norm-referenced criteria. Participants of lower two categories (D and E) of physical fitness level was defined as a lower level group. A latent growth modeling was used to examine the influence of the change in a life habit score to a change in a physical fitness score. With the physical fitness change factor, there were statistically significant and positive direct effects from the change in eating habits (slope) only in the lower level group. There were also significant effects from the initial levels of the eating habits, the exercise habits in the all data, and all life habits except for TV/video game viewing habit in the lower level group. These findings, with limited samples and a statistical method, might suggest that an improvement of eating habits has an effect on improvement of physical fitness in a lower level group of physical fitness, and initial levels of life habits also affects improvement of physical fitness.
