Abstract

fhis article presents the reliability and feasibility studies, as well as reference norms, for the evaluation of health-related fitness by means of the the AFISAL-INEFC test battery for adults (Rodriguez et al. 1995a-c, 1998). The aim of the first investigation was to determine the intra-observer reliability and feasibility in field conditions for the different battery tests. For this purpose, the battery of tests was administered twice in a 15 days interval to 30 healthy adults (10 men, 20 women; 18 to 30 years old).
The full battery was administered to the 30 subjects at the rate of 6 subjects tested in 60 minutes for one examiner. The results for the whole group did not significantly differ in the two occasions (p> 0,05), and the test-retest intra-observer reliability coefficients can be considered as acceptable for field testing (ICC= 0,76-0,99). No accidents or relevant physical disturbances did occur during or after the testing sessions.
Consequently, the AFISAL-INEEC health-related fitness test battery can be considered reasonably reliable and feasible for the healthy adult population.
The aim of the second study was to establish reference norms for the different test items. Recruited by means of an accessibility sampling method, 238 healthy subjects (102 men, 136 women) were tested using the same protocol. Six age groups were established for each sex category (18-24; 25-34; 35-44; 45-54; 55-64; >64 years). The norms were established using 5 categories for each age and sex group, and the intervals were calculated using the “z” scores for each variable.
In conclusion, until a further study based on a wider and randomly recruited sample of subjects would be available, it seems adequate to use the results from the present study as provisional reference norms for the evaluation of health-related fitness by means of the AFISAL-INEFC test battery in healthy adult Catalan population