Comparison of Cambodian and Japanese in height and standing-long-jump

-Focus on 7-12 years old in elementary school children-

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare physique and physical fitness of Cambodian-children with Japanese same generation, which is to find a characteristic of their growth and development. Target areas were eight-areas : Battambang, Kompong Chhnang, Kampong Cham, Kratie, Phnom Penh, Rattanak Kiri Sihanouk Ville, and Svay Rieng. The examinees were children from 7-years-old to 12- of the schools where the investigation took place (n=2,520 girls and 2,543 boys). The research was carried out with regard to height, weight, sit-up, sitting-trunk-flexion, side-step, 5minutes-run, 50m-run and standing-long-jump. In this study, we analyzed only the standing-long-jump among the physical fitness items. Japanese student's data were quoted from the reports of The Japanese Ministry of Education & Science. The results of this study were as follows : For both boys and girls, Cambodian-children were the value that was below Japanese- in height, weight and standing-long-jump. However, Cambodian-children were similar to Japanese- in terms of the efficiency of their power output in the long jump. This report is a part of the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) partnership program with NPO Hearts of Gold (Japan and Cambodia).