Top Five Fittest Countries According To Beep Test
A recent study compared fitness levels of children and youth from 50 countries.
50-country comparison of child and youth fitness levels study carried out by Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the University of North Dakota has shown that:
"Kids who are aerobically fit tend to be healthy; and healthy kids are apt to be healthy adults. So studying aerobic fitness in the early years is very insightful to overall population health,”
said Justin Lang, lead author of this study.
The authors compared and analysed the results of the 20-meter shuttle data, also called the beep test*, from 1.1 million kids aged 9 to 17 years old from 50 countries.
The results in short are as follows:
- Top 5 fittest countries: Tanzania, Iceland, Estonia, Norway, Japan
- Canada placed 19 out of 50
- America placed 47 out of 50
- The least fit is Mexico
Full text of the study is available now in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Unfortunately there is no free access to the full results.
Does anybody here by any change has access to this journal?
I would very much like to see the full list. Thank you very much!
*What is the Beep Test?
(My description of this test)
Imagine running up and down the gym hall where your goal is to be at one end of the hall at the beep. Then you turn around and run to the other end to catch another beep.
Variations of this test include staging the tempo with shortening the time between the beeps.
Quite interesting to watch and somehow demanding if you are a test subject reaching the higher levels of the beeps :)
Cover image by CHEO
Better and better!