Abstract
The current paper presents the design and implementation of an online platform for supporting the surveillance monitoring of physical fitness in youth. The platform developed for the needs of EUFITMOS (European Fitness Monitoring System), an Erasmus + project, which aims to encourage participation in sports and physical activities, by supporting the implementation of European Union (EU) policy documents in the field of sports and other relevant policy areas such as guidelines, policy strategies and the implementation of the Council Recommendation on health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA). The importance of having a cross-country observatory for fitness in youth as an indicator and measurement for the population in every country, lead us to collect all the available data which are scarce or even inexistent in some cases, and extract a standardized monitoring system which is accessible by individuals, public health and any other interested authorities and can be utilized for policy initiatives to promote physical activities across countries.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Chaddock-Heyman, L., et al.: Aerobic fitness is associated with greater hippocampal cerebral blood flow in children. Dev. Cogn. Neurosci. 20, 52–58 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2016.07.001
Erikssen, G., Liestøl, K., Bjørnholt, J., Thaulow, E., Sandvik, L., Erikssen, J.: Changes in physical fitness and changes in mortality. Lancet (London, England) 352(9130), 759–762 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(98)02268-5
Faselis, C., et al.: Exercise capacity and progression from prehypertension to hypertension. Hypertension (Dallas, Tex:1979) 60(2), 333–338 (2012)
Hogstrom, G., Nordstrom, A., Eriksson, M., Nordstrom, P.: Risk factors assessed in adolescence and the later risk of stroke in men: a 33-year follow-up study. Cerebrovasc. Dis. 39(1), 63–71 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1159/000369960
Hurtig-Wennlof, A., Ruiz, J.R., Harro, M., Sjostrom, M.: Cardiorespiratory fitness relates more strongly than physical activity to cardiovascular disease risk factors in healthy children and adolescents: the European Youth Heart Study. Eur. J. Cardiovasc. Prev. Rehabil.: Off. J. Eur. Soc. Cardiol. Work. Groups Epidemiol. Prev. Card. Rehabil. Exerc. Physiol. 14, 575–581 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1097/HJR.0b013e32808c67e3
Janssen, I., Leblanc, A.: Systematic review of the health benefits of physical activity and fitness in school-aged children and youth. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 7, 40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-40
Lee, C.D., Blair, S.N., Jackson, A.S.: Cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in men. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 69(3), 373–380 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/69.3.373
Metter, E.J., Talbot, L.A., Schrager, M., Conwit, R.: Skeletal muscle strength as a predictor of all-cause mortality in healthy men. J. Gerontol. Ser. A, Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 57(10), B359–365 (2002)
Mora, S., et al.: Ability of exercise testing to predict cardiovascular and all-cause death in asymptomatic women: a 20-year follow-up of the lipid research clinics prevalence study. JAMA 290(12), 1600–1607 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.290.12.1600
Ortega, F.B., et al.: Physical fitness levels among European adolescents: the HELENA study. Br. J. Sports Med. 45(1), 20–29 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2009.062679
Ortega, F.B., Ruiz, J.R., Castillo, M.J., Sjostrom, M.: Physical fitness in childhood and adolescence: a powerful marker of health. Int. J. Obes (Lond) 32(1), 1–11 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803774
Ruiz, J.R., et al.: Predictive validity of health-related fitness in youth: a systematic review. Br. J. Sports Med. 43(12), 909–923 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsm.2008.056499
Smith, J.J., Eather, N., Morgan, P.J., Plotnikoff, R.C., Faigenbaum, A.D., Lubans, D.R.: The health benefits of muscular fitness for children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med. 44(9), 1209–1223 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0196-4
Timpka, S., Petersson, I.F., Zhou, C., Englund, M.: Muscle strength in adolescent men and risk of cardiovascular disease events and mortality in middle age: a prospective cohort study. BMC Med. 12, 62 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-12-62
Acknowledgment
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
The authors of this research would like to thank EUFITMOS team who generously shared their time, experience, and materials for the purposes of this project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chaldogeridis, A. et al. (2022). Design and Implementation of an Online European Network for Monitoring Fitness in Youth. In: Auer, M.E., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) New Realities, Mobile Systems and Applications. IMCL 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 411. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96296-8_104
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96296-8_104
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-96295-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-96296-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)