| The purpose of this study was to measure and describe specific health-related fitness components of 244 socio-economically disadvantaged African American Youth (AAY) ages 10 to 16, in terms of how they compare to the general population as measured by the criterion-referenced fitness standards of the FITNESSGRAM, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Guidelines, Healthy People 2010, and Fahey, Insel, and Roth, 1999. Variables of interest include resting heart rate (RHR), 2-minute exercise heart rate (2EHR), 3-minute exercise heart rate (3EHR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), pulmonary function (%FEV1), sit-ups (SU), modified pull ups (MPU), flexibility (FLX), percent body fat (%BF), body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL), total cholesterol to high density lipoprotein ratio (TC/HDI,), and blood glucose (BG). Few investigations have been conducted on the health and fitness trends of socioeconomically disadvantaged African American youth.; Descriptive analysis of the male and female populations revealed concern in the areas of resting as well as 2- and 3-minute exercise heart rates, % body fat, MBI, WHR, upper body and abdominal muscular endurance, and blood glucose. The level of concern was set at 25% or greater for each gender population being measured. The range was between 25% to 71% on the measured variables for both gender groups.; In conclusion, the social class profiled in this study and defined by Low-Socioeconomic Status (SES) appears to exhibit early warning signs on the health-related fitness variables described above. Based on these findings, it is recommended that intervention strategies for this population be designed to address the negative trends reported in this investigation. |
