A web-based surveillance system on adolescents’ lifestyles and obesity prevention: ASSO-FTB preliminary findings. The ASSO Project

Abstract

In a context where obesity represents a cause of concern in childhood and where there is a lack of standardized data collection systems, ASSO Project (Adolescents and Surveillance System for Obesity prevention), financed by the Italian Ministry of Health, aims to develop a surveillance system structured on adolescents lifestyles. It is a prospective study with online data collection, simultaneous descriptive data analysis and real time report. The ASSO-Toolkit is made of questionnaires, forms and a fitness test battery: ASSO-PIQ (Personal Information Questionnaire);ASSO-PASAQ (Physical Activity, Smoke, Alcohol, Questionnaire); ASSO- FHQ (Food Habits Questionnaire); ASSO-FFQ (Food Frequency Questionnaire); ASSO-BFMF (Body and Fitness Measures Form); ASSO- FTB (Fitness Tests Battery). The aims of this study is to evaluate the predictive validity, the criterion validity and the reliability of ASSOFTB, in other words to assess how well the system operates to meet its obje! ctives. The ASSO-FTB consists of 20mSRT (Shuttle Run Test) to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness, the handgrip strength test and the standing broad jump to assess musculoskeletal fitness, the 4x10mSRT to assess motor fitness and last but not least the sit up test to estimate muscle endurance. Forty male adolescents (17,32 ± 1,0 yrs; 175,3 ± 6,0 cm; 72,4 ± 14,7 kg; waist circ. 86,2 ± 12,4 cm) attending the same secondary school, voluntarily participated to the pilot study. In a school setting, the already standardised procedures were administered by the ASSO-FTB specialist in collaboration with the (PE) teacher. All data collected were updated through the already existing website (www.assoproject.info) and codified by the dedicated ASSO-FTB server. All equipments adopted were selected according to the previous publications (HELENA Study, AVENA Study, FITNESSGRAM and ALPHA Study). Data were analyzed using STATISTICA software, two-tail paired t test, ! two-tail Unpaired t test and Pearson correlation were used when appropriate. Participants were significantly higher in BMI compared to data published by Espana-Romeo et al in 2010. As expected, the maximal isometric strength showed no differences between dx (35,07±7,3 kg) and sx (35,8±4,8 kg) handgrips respectively. The standing broad jump (178,07 ± 26,9 cm) has evinced less distance than Espana-Romeo study (183,4 ± 32,75), p = 0,37. The sit-up test reported a mean value of 44,9 ± 32,8 reps. On the whole findings show that there is a correlation between handgrip and standing broad jump (r = 0.7), underlining that this last test is better indicative of the upper and lower body muscular strength. The trial showed that the FTB-system was structurally simple, low cost, reliable and well accepted by the key partners. At this stage ASSOFTB seems to be able to meet scientific standards. More studies are necessary for the ASSO-toolkit validation. Preliminary results are very encouraging.