City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, New York.
Miami-Dade Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces, 275 NW 2nd St, Ste 416, Miami, FL 33128. Email:
Prev Chronic Dis. 2018 Jan 11;15:E05. doi: 10.5888/pcd15.170152.
Youth health-related fitness positively affects academic outcomes, although limited research has focused on the relationship between fitness and school absenteeism. We examined the longitudinal association between individual children's fitness and lagged school absenteeism over 4 years in urban middle schools.
Six cohorts of New York City public school students were followed from grades 5 through 8 (school years 2006-2007 through 2012-2013; n = 349,381). A 3-level longitudinal generalized linear mixed model was used to test the association of change in fitness composite percentile scores and 1-year lagged child-specific days absent.
Adjusted 3-level negative binomial models showed that students with a more than 20% increase, 10% to 20% increase, less than 10% increase or decrease, and 10% to 20% decrease in fitness from the year prior had 11.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.2-16.8), 6.1% (95% CI, 1.0-11.4), 2.6% (95% CI, -1.1 to 6.5), and 0.4% (95% CI, -4.3 to 5.4) lower absenteeism compared with students with a more than 20% fitness decrease.
Cumulative effects of fitness improvement could have a significant impact on child absenteeism over time, particularly in high-need subgroups. Future research should examine the potential for school-based fitness interventions to reduce absenteeism rates, particularly for youths who have fitness drop-offs in adolescence.
青少年健康相关体能对学业成绩有积极影响，尽管有限的研究关注了体能与缺课之间的关系。我们研究了城市中学 4 年间个体儿童体能与滞后性缺课之间的纵向关联。
6 个纽约市公立学校的队列学生从五年级到八年级（2006-2007 学年至 2012-2013 学年）被跟踪，共 349381 人。使用 3 级纵向广义线性混合模型检验了体能综合百分位分数变化与儿童特定缺课天数滞后 1 年的关联。
调整后的 3 级负二项模型显示，体能在前一年增加 20%以上、10%至 20%、少于 10%或减少 10%至 20%的学生，与体能下降超过 20%的学生相比，缺勤率分别低 11.9%（95%置信区间 [CI]：7.2-16.8）、6.1%（95% CI：1.0-11.4）、2.6%（95% CI：-1.1 至 6.5）和 0.4%（95% CI：-4.3 至 5.4）。
随着时间的推移，体能提高的累积效应可能对儿童缺课率产生重大影响，尤其是在高需求亚组中。未来的研究应检验基于学校的体能干预措施降低缺课率的潜力，特别是对青春期体能下降的青少年。
