Physical fitness surveillance and monitoring systems inventory for children and adolescents : a scoping review with a global perspective

Brazo-Sayavera, Javier (author), Silva, Danilo R. (author), Lang, Justin J. (author), Tomkinson, Grant R. (author), Agostinis-Sobrinho, César (author), Andersen, Lars Bo (author), García-Hermoso, Antonio (author), Gaya, Anelise R. (author), Jurak, Gregor (author), Lee, Eun-Young (author), Liu, Yang (author), Lubans, David R. (author), Okely, Anthony D. (author), Ortega, Francisco B (author), Ruiz, Jonatan R. (author), Tremblay, Mark S. (author), Santos, Leandro Dos (author)

Surveillance of health-related physical fitness can improve decision-making and intervention strategies promoting health for children and adolescents. However, no study has comprehensively analyzed surveillance/monitoring systems for physical fitness globally. This review sought to address this gap by identifying: (1) national-level surveillance/monitoring systems for physical fitness among children and adolescents globally, (2) the main barriers and challenges to implementing surveillance/monitoring systems, and (3) governmental actions related to existing surveillance/monitoring systems. We used a scoping review to search, obtain, group, summarize, and analyze available evidence. Our review involved three stages: (1) identification of surveillance systems through a systematic literature review, with complementary search of the grey literature (e.g., reference lists, Google Scholar, webpages, recommendations), (2) systematic consultation with relevant experts using a Delphi method to confirm/add systems and to gather and analyze information on the barriers and challenges to implementing systems, and (3) Web searches for public documents on government sites and surveillance/monitoring system pages, and direct internet searches to identify relevant governmental actions related to surveillance systems. A total of 15 fitness surveillance/monitoring systems met our inclusion criteria. Experts identified a lack of government support and funding, and the low priority of fitness on the public health agenda as the main barriers/challenges to implementation. Several governmental actions related to surveillance systems were identified, including policies, strategies, programs, and guidelines. We propose a Global Observatory of Physical Fitness to help address these issues.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sport, physical fitness, surveillance and monitoring systems, children, adolescents
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 1755-1769
• Numbering: Vol. 54, iss. 7
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-186067
• UDC: 796.01
• ISSN on article: 1179-2035
• DOI: 10.1007/s40279-024-02038-9
• COBISS.SI-ID: 194952451
• Publication date in RUL: 26.08.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sports medicine
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 1179-2035
• COBISS.SI-ID: 519142425

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šport, telesna pripravljenost, sistemi za nadzor in spremljanje, otroci, mladostniki