[Motor Fitness. Results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS)].

Motor fitness was investigated in children and adolescents aged 4-17 using specific short tests. These tested the motor abilities: co-ordination, strength, cardiorespiratory fitness and flexibility. Among the 4-10 year olds, the focus of the investigation was on recording coordination, strength and flexibility; in the age group of the 11-17 year olds it was on recording cardiorespiratory fitness. The current investigation describes motor fitness based on the tested abilities according to age, sex and sociodemographic aspects. In all the test tasks, as expected, there are better results from older children and adolescents than from younger ones. Among the 4-10 year olds, girls display a slightly higher motor fitness in five out of the six tasks. In cardiorespiratory fitness, the cycle ergometer test for the 11-17 year olds shows better results for boys. The results indicate that there is a correlation between migrant status, social status and motor fitness. The shown differences point out that possible intervention programmes should be specifically attuned to age and sex as well as to the concerns of children and families with a migrant background and those of low social status. These collected data on motor fitness produced a database, representative of Germany. This will enable statements on state and development of motor fitness in children and adolescents in the future.