Body composition and self-perceived health and fitness among indoor sports participants

Abstract

This paper examines (1) the responses of participants in specific indoor sports to questions regarding their self-perceived health and fitness, and (2) the relation betweeen these responses and body composition. A representative sample of indoor sports participants (n = 4308; 2938 male and 1370 female) from six cities in the United Kingdom responded to a questionnaire concerned with their self-perception of health and fitness. Height and weight was established from self-report and a body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Seventy eight percent of males and 85% of females reported their health as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Less than 2% of the sample reported their health as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. However, only 67% of males and 67% of females reported their fitness as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. Again, the proportion of the sample reporting ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ fitness was low; less than 4%. The question on health was compared with a recent general population survey and this yielded markedly more ‘unfavourable’ results; only 72% of males and 70% of females reported their health as being ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. A comparison of the response category groups for BMI showed significant differences between the ‘poor’ and ‘fair’ groups but not between the ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ groups.

It is concluded that: (1) indoor sports participants regard their health and fitness highly, but their fitness less so than their health; (2) adiposity tends to be associated with poorer perceptions of health and fitness; (3) women sports participants perceive their health more highly than others of the same age compared with men, yet the reverse is true of fitness.