A fitness index model for Italian adolescents living in Southern Italy. The ASSO project

BACKGROUND: Strong relations between physical fitness and health in adolescents have been established in the last decades. The main objectives of the present investigation were to assess major physical fitness components in a sample of Italian school adolescents, comparing them with international data, and providing a Fitness Index model derived from percentile cut-off values of five considered physical fitness components. METHODS: A total of 644 school pupils (15.9�1.1 years; M: N.=399; F: N.=245) were tested using the ASSO-Fitness Test Battery (FTB), a tool developed within the Adolescents and Surveillance System for the Obesity prevention project, which included the handgrip, standing br…