Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Prevalence of Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Public School Students

Background

To determine if the COVID-19 pandemic influenced students' cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), this study examined the prevalence of meeting a health-related standard for CRF in public school students before, during and after the pandemic.

Methods

A repeated cross-sectional study design was used, and multilevel logistic regression was employed to compare the prevalence of students meeting the CRF standard during the four school years preceding the pandemic (2016–2017 to 2019–2020) with the 2 years during the pandemic (2020–2021 to 2021–2022) and with 2 years after the pandemic (2022–2023 to 2023–2024). Students' CRF data were provided by 21 school districts that, between 2016–2017 and 2023–2024, consistently participated in a statewide survey of health-related fitness.

Results

Before the pandemic 52.4% of students met the standard for CRF. This prevalence was reduced to 44.3% during the pandemic (AOR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.67, 0.70) and remained reduced at 47.1% after the pandemic (AOR = 0.77, 95% CI = 0.76, 0.79).

Implications for School Health

During periods of societal disruption, such as a pandemic, school personnel should adopt practices aimed at supporting students' CRF.

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with reduced CRF in public school students, and this trend persisted for at least two school years following the pandemic.