Effects of School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Physical Fitness of Japanese Kindergarteners: A Longitudinal Study

Sho Aoyama^1,

¹Department of Education, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi City, Japan

Cite this paper:
Sho Aoyama. Effects of School Closure Due to COVID-19 on the Physical Fitness of Japanese Kindergarteners: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Physical Activity Research. 2023; 8(2):73-77. doi: 10.12691/jpar-8-2-3

Abstract

The present study aimed to longitudinally clarify differences in physical fitness between Japanese kindergarteners who experienced school closure due to COVID-19 (COVID-19 pandemic group) and those who did not (control group). For the COVID-19 pandemic group, 51 children underwent physical fitness measurements at three years old in November 2019, four years old in November 2020, and five years old in November 2021. In the control group, 52 children underwent similar measurements at three years old in November 2017, four years old in November 2018, and five years old in November 2019. For physical fitness measurements, I performed an analysis of variance (ANOVA) of group × time for each gender. Regarding body support duration, the COVID-19 pandemic group performed significantly lower than the control group at four and five years old. The present study longitudinally revealed that muscle endurance among Japanese kindergarteners who experienced school closure due to COVID-19 was impaired.

Keywords:
early childhood kindergarten muscle endurance

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