A web-based surveillance system on adolescents’ lifestylesand obesity prevention: ASSO-FTB preliminary findings. The ASSOProject

In a context where obesity represents a cause of concern in childhoodand where there is a lack of standardized data collection systems, ASSOProject (Adolescents and Surveillance System for Obesity prevention),financed by the Italian Ministry of Health, aims to develop a surveillancesystem structured on adolescents lifestyles. It is a prospective study withonline data collection, simultaneous descriptive data analysis and realtime report. The ASSO-Toolkit is made of questionnaires, forms and afitness test battery: ASSO-PIQ (Personal Information Questionnaire);ASSO-PASAQ (Physical Activity, Smoke, Alcohol, Questionnaire); ASSO-FHQ (Food Habits Questionnaire); ASSO-FFQ (Food FrequencyQuestionnaire); ASSO-BFMF (Body and Fitness Measures Form); ASSO-FTB (Fitness Tests Battery). The aims of this study is to evaluate thepredictive validity, the criterion validity and the reliability of ASSOFTB,in other words to assess how well the system operates to meet itsobje! ctives.The ASSO-FTB consists of 20mSRT (Shuttle Run Test) to estimate cardiorespiratoryfitness, the handgrip strength test and the standing broadjump to assess musculoskeletal fitness, the 4x10mSRT to assess motorfitness and last but not least the sit up test to estimate muscle endurance.Forty male adolescents (17,32 ± 1,0 yrs; 175,3 ± 6,0 cm; 72,4 ± 14,7 kg;waist circ. 86,2 ± 12,4 cm) attending the same secondary school, voluntarilyparticipated to the pilot study. In a school setting, the already standardisedprocedures were administered by the ASSO-FTB specialist incollaboration with the (PE) teacher. All data collected were updatedthrough the already existing website (www.assoproject.info) and codifiedby the dedicated ASSO-FTB server. All equipments adopted were selectedaccording to the previous publications (HELENA Study, AVENAStudy, FITNESSGRAM and ALPHA Study). Data were analyzed usingSTATISTICA software, two-tail paired t test, ! two-tail Unpaired t testand Pearson correlation were used when appropriate.Participants were significantly higher in BMI compared to data publishedby Espana-Romeo et al in 2010. As expected, the maximal isometricstrength showed no differences between dx (35,07±7,3 kg) and sx(35,8±4,8 kg) handgrips respectively. The standing broad jump (178,07± 26,9 cm) has evinced less distance than Espana-Romeo study (183,4 ±32,75), p = 0,37. The sit-up test reported a mean value of 44,9 ± 32,8reps. On the whole findings show that there is a correlation betweenhandgrip and standing broad jump (r = 0.7), underlining that this last testis better indicative of the upper and lower body muscular strength.The trial showed that the FTB-system was structurally simple, low cost,reliable and well accepted by the key partners. At this stage ASSOFTBseems to be able to meet scientific standards. More studies are necessaryfor the ASSO-toolkit validation. Preliminary results are very encouraging.