Resumen de Reliability of Two Field-Based Tests for Measuring Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Preschool Children
Carlos Ayán Pérez, José María Cancela Carral, Sonia Romero Otero, Susana Alonso Lago
This study is aimed at analyzing the reliability of 2 field-based cardiorespiratory fitness tests when applied to a sample specifically made up of preschool-aged children. A total of 97 preschoolers (mean age: 4.36 ± 0.4 years; 50.5% girls) performed Course-Navette and Mini-Cooper tests 3 times (familiarization test and retest). The scores obtained were compared with the results provided by the 3-minute shuttle run test, which is considered to be a reliable field-based test for preschoolers. The Mini-Cooper test showed a high reliability for children aged 4 (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]: 0.942; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.903�0.965) and 5 years old (ICC: 0.946; 95% CI: 0.893�0.973). The reliability of Course-Navette was also high for both 4-year-old (ICC: 0.909; 95% CI: 0.849�0.945) and 5-year-old children (ICC: 0.889; 95% CI: 0.780�0.944). The mean scores of the 3-minute shuttle run test did not show a significant correlation with the mean scores obtained in the Mini-Cooper test and in the Course-Navette test in the 4-year-old children. The results of this study suggest that Course-Navette and Mini-Cooper tests are reliable measures of cardiorespiratory fitness that can be used to assess health-related fitness in preschool children. Nevertheless, some considerations must be taken into account before administering them.
