Abstract Background Preterm (PT) birth and low birth mass (LBW) can impair growth and development of children and may therefore affect their physical performance up to adulthood. Aims Our aim was to ...evaluate long-term consequences of prematurity, especially (an)aerobic exercise capacity and agility up to adulthood, by comparing premature and full-term (FT) individuals. Study design, subjects From 474 subjects born in 1987, who were enrolled into a longitudinal study, 396 (178 PT and 218 FT (with 127 of them LBW)) were followed-up into their early adulthood. Their mass, respiratory status at birth, and results of SLOfit monitoring system (i.e. results of exercise capacity and agility) were monitored on a yearly basis from their age of 8 to 18 years. Data were compared statistically with Student t-test or ANOVA. Outcome measures, results PT (or LBW) individuals performed aerobic (time of 600-meter run of females) and the majority of anaerobic tests (sit-ups, standing broad jump, and time of 60-meter run, but not bent arm hang) worse (p < 0.05) than FT individuals. Before puberty, however, the agility and fine motor tests (arm plate tapping, polygon backwards, and standing reach touch) were performed better (p < 0.05) by PT (or LBW) females, as compared to their FT peers, with no similar results in males. Conclusions Our results clearly demonstrate that prematurity (especially extreme prematurity) diminishes exercise capacity and agility on the long-term scale, therefore, PT children should be encouraged towards more regular participation in physical activities from early childhood onwards.
In Slovenia, the national SLOfit surveillance system of the somatic and motor development of children and youth has been enabling researchers to observe the developmental trends of the entire ...population of school-aged children since 1987. The national database currently incorporates over 7.2 million sets of measurements of eight fitness tests and three anthropometric measurements. Since 1991, as in the rest of the world, in Slovenia, there is a common perception that the physical fitness of contemporary children is in decline and below the level of the physical fitness of the previous generation's childhood fitness. Our paper examines the trends of physical fitness in 26 birth cohorts of 7-10-year-olds. The analysis shows that the secular trends of physical fitness in boys and especially in girls have been positive and that the level of physical fitness of recent birth cohorts exceeds the national average of physical fitness of the 1989-2019 period. At the same time, the analysis reveals that the distribution of physical fitness has been changing from almost normal in the cohorts born in the first half of the 1980s, toward positively skewed in the subsequent cohorts born before the year 2000, and bimodal distribution in the later cohorts, indicating growing inequality and polarization of the motor development of children.
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