Health-related physical fitness levels of youths with visual impairment in Jordan

As fitness is an important component of quality of life, it is necessary to determine fitness levels among various population groups to be able to plan programs for their future fitness improvement. Previous research shows that individuals with visual impairments have lower levels of health-related physical fitness than people without visual impairment. In Jordan, research mainly focuses on youths without visual impairment, whereas no previous studies have been conducted on children with visual impairment and their physical fitness levels. This study aimed to explore health-related physical fitness levels of children with visual impairment in Jordan. A total of 107 children (65 boys and 42 girls) with visual impairment aged 11?15?years and 114 children without visual impairment were included in this study. All children were asked to perform the following assessment items: a one mile run/walk test to measure cardiovascular endurance, a handgrip strength to measure the maximum isometric strength of the hand and forearm muscles, push-up and curl-up tests to measure upper body and abdominal muscular endurance, respectively, sit-and-reach test to measure flexibility, and two-site skinfold measures to determine body composition. Children with visual impairment appeared to have low health-related physical fitness. For instance, the overall mean of push-ups was 4.06, while cardiovascular endurance was excluded from data analysis as only a few students (7) completed the test. No significant differences were found in any of the tested variables among the various age groups. Furthermore, boys showed statistically significant measurements in strength, curl-up, and push-up tests than girls. Children with visual impairment had significantly better score in only push-up test than children who were blind. In addition, except boys with visual impairment aged 15?years, all children with visual impairment failed FitnessGram, whereas sighted children passed all tests.