Physical Fitness and Anthropometric Characteristics in School Children: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Areas in East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The objective of the study is to compare physical fitness between urban and rural school children and to determine relationship between body mass index and physical fitness primary school children in east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This study is a cross-sectional study and conducted in primary schools. Anthropometric measurement involved weight and height measurement, and body mass index (BMI) calculation. Fitness test that were measured are power and flexibility. Power was measured by using Standing Broad Jump (SBJ), and flexibility test was measured using Sit and Reach Test (SRT). Total number of subjects were 14880, 71% (n=10532) were classified in normal BMI, and remaining 10% (n=1423) were in obesity; 9% (n=1303) were overweight, 8% (n=1164) were underweight; and 3% (n=458) were in severe thinness. In school area category, 59% (n=8769) rural school children and 41% (n=6111) urban school children. In conclusion, the current study found flexibility had shown a difference in area of school where urban school children performed slightly better than that of rural with F-value 2.09 (Pr>F= 0.15; p<0.05). It also showed a significant negative correlation between BMI and power (r=-0.12) with p-value was 0.0001. However, there was no significant difference in power with areas of school, and no correlation between flexibility and BMI.