Aerobic Fitness Measures

This report details the method of measuring the Aerobic Fitness of Year 9 and Year 10 Linwood College students using the internationally standardized Queens College step test.

It details the efforts taken to ensure consistency and accuracy of these measurements and the results obtained. Barriers to learning, medical ones in particular, were to be targeted in 2006 at Linwood College as part of an ongoing study by LANE - (Literacy And Numeracy Empowerment project)

The Collaborative for Research and Training in Youth Health and Development would have a team of health professionals examining the Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat, and a Dental check and Linwood College would examine the Demographics, Aerobic Fitness, Health measurements, HEADSS assessment for mental health and academic performance and pastoral care of the students.

Rather than just testing the year 9 and year 10 students, which may become a negative experience, Linwood College turned it into an Expo on Health and made it a positive experience with a number of freebies and pamphlet takeaways. This was achieved in addition to the assessments of the students and the following exhibited. NZ Blood Service, Cancer Society, Auhi Kore / Smokefree, Diverse café / 198 Youth, Heart Foundation, Sports & Rec Kaiwhakahaere, Mental Health Foundation, Sport Canterbury.

The Aerobic Fitness is one facet of this larger study and produced some surprising results when compared to the results quoted in An Analysis of the Usefulness and Feasibility of a Population Indicator of Childhood Obesity. Ministry of Health, 2006. Wellington.

Some 30% of New Zealand students are reported to be obese.

Obesity is related to exercise and aerobic fitness levels.

This Linwood College study places 72% of the student population in the Superior or Excellent fitness category and 87% in the Superior, Excellent or Good fitness categories.

At first reading this could suggest that Linwood College students are much fitter than the New Zealand student population.

What this probably really means is the BMI charts used in the Obesity study which are for European, North American students are not equipped to take cognisance of the Maori and Pacifica makeup of our population and that some research needs to be done on standardising some charts specifically for New Zealand children.

It does raise some other issues for SPARC, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and others charged with our children's' health and wellbeing. Perhaps the children are not as unfit or obese as the official message is being painted and some other research needs to be done elsewhere to either confirm the picture portrayed at Linwood or to confirm that Linwood students are indeed fitter than those in the rest of New Zealand.

It recommends that the Health authorities need to take notice of the conflict detailed in this study in using the Cole or CDC BMI charts and do a specific study of New Zealand children that takes recognition of our ethnic diversity. This is important for clinicians to make effective use of such information.

Background

The future of our society is dependent on the health, wellbeing and educational achievement of the young people of today. It is therefore important that society promotes and enables young people to be healthy, happy, well educated and productively employed. The study of the effects of early economic inactivity on young people has identified a link between early inactivity with a high probability of inactivity at a later stage (Maloney, 2004). Maloney initially defined economic inactivity as "…occurring when an individual is not enrolled in education or training, and not working in the labour market" Consequences of this economic inactivity or non-participation are negative both for the young person and wider society (Flemming, Kainuku-Walsh, Denny, Watson 2004).

In his address to the inaugural Council Meeting on 27th October 2004, Mayor Garry Moore said. "I'd like to give some new guarantees.To our young people I'd like to guarantee that: in this city they will get to certain levels of literacy and numeracy. If you can read and count then you've got a very good start in life. This, however, cannot be undertaken by our schools on their own. There are squads of retired people out there who could really spend some of their time teaching one of our future ratepayers how to read or count.

There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence about the abilities, or lack of, of our youth. For Christchurch we need to find out what the problems are. Young people with these problems fall into one or more of three categories - never been taught or learnt, not enough teaching to enable skill retention, or unable to be taught through mental or physical or emotional conditions. The education system can identify and perhaps deal with those in its care, but we all know that schools never have enough staff, funding or time to support all students' individual needs. Other Government agencies appear to be stretched or just not coping. The youth that don't fit into those categories, and those who do, need extra support to reach the literacy and numeracy benchmarks that society demands to enable them to be a positive contributor to our great city."

Denny, Clark and Watson (2004) have pointed out that students who are failing in education also have exceptionally high health needs and research suggests that the earlier students receive appropriate health interventions the greater the effect on the students' educational opportunities. This study of Linwood College students is based on a rationale that ill health may result in non-participation and aims to identify rates of problems among the year 9 and 10 students of Linwood College by measuring their aerobic fitness.