Physical Fitness Cut‐Points for Early Detection of Obesity Risk in Preschool Children

ABSTRACT Objective This study aimed to establish cut‐points for cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, and speed‐agility and to evaluate their ability to detect general and central obesity risk in preschool children aged 3–5 years. Methods Briefly, 3179 Spanish preschoolers (52.8% boys) were evaluated. Physical fitness was assessed with the PREFIT battery. Anthropometry included BMI and waist circumference. Obesity risk was defined using age‐ and sex‐specific percentiles according to criteria established by the World Health Organization and the International Diabetes Foundation. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to identify fitness cut‐points. Results Age‐ and sex‐specific cut‐points were established. For cardiorespiratory fitness, cut‐points ranged from 9.5 to 23.5 laps in boys and 6.5 to 21.5 in girls across the 3– to 5‐year age range. Muscular strength cut‐points ranged from z ‐scores of −1.5 to 2.2 in boys and −1.6 to 1.9 in girls. Speed‐agility cut‐points ranged from 18.8 to 14.9 s in boys and 19.9 to 15.3 s in girls. Predictive accuracy was moderate‐to‐high (AUC range: 0.61–0.74 for cardiorespiratory fitness, 0.59–0.80 for strength, 0.49–0.71 for speed‐agility). Conclusions This study provides fitness cut‐points for detecting general and central obesity risk in preschoolers. Early integration of physical fitness assessments into health monitoring may facilitate early identification of obesity risk.