The Estimation for Proper Physical Fitness of Company Employees Derived from Body Composition Balance

Abstract

　Thought toward the health of employees in a company is an important factor in raising productivity. For employees to work hard for the company, their physical fitness cannot be ignored. However, the various problems in actually measuring physical fitness in companies make this difficult. We then wondered whether the characteristics of physical fitness could be inferred from body composition balance using easily measurable physique and body composition data. This study was conducted with the aim of comparing whether differences in physical fitness exist between groups divided by body composition balance determined using physique and body composition, and whether there are differences between groups depending on differences in experience playing school team sports as a part of daily life in middle and high school. The subjects were 1,003 female university students at an arts university. Their height, weight, and body fat percentage were measured. To measure physical fitness, back strength, sit-ups, vertical jump, 20 m shuttle run, and grip strength were used. BMI was calculated from height and weight. An evaluation chart was built from least squares approximation polynomial of body fat percentage against BMI, and body composition balance was obtained from an evaluation using mean BMI and divided into 9 groups. To compare the characteristics of physical fitness between the groups, the differences between groups were investigated using both analysis of variance and multiple comparison. The validity of the inference regarding physical fitness was investigated by performing a χ² test of whether there were differences between the groups in experience playing team sports in middle and high school.