Projects / Programmes
My SLOfit reporting system
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.10.01 |
Social sciences |
Sport |
Kinesiology - pedagogical aspect (sport, training, motorial learning) |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S273 |
Social sciences |
Physical training, motorial learning, sport |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 3.03 |
Medical and Health Sciences |
Health sciences |
children, youth, physical fitness, somatic and motor development, health-related behaviors
Researchers (7)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
SLOfit is one of the largest databases on children's somatic and motor development in the world. It enables children and parents to receive feedback on the comparison of child's somatic and motor development with the development of their peers, it enables teachers to effectively plan the teaching process, and it provides the scientific backbone and evaluation tool in the decision makers' processes of planning and implementation of various policies, linked to school physical education and physical activity of children and youth. Currently the information on somatic and motor development of children are directly accessible only to teachers who then share this information with children and their parents. In practice, this often means that parents do not receive the complete information on the consequences of poor physical fitness of their children. There is also a growing interest of school physicians who would have a much better possibility to detect children with higher health risks and would gain a better insight into individual child's development if they had access to the SLOfit data. On the other hand, also teachers are expressing a growing demand to cooperate with health experts and help reduce possible health risks of chronic diseases and poor health status of children.
The goal of the My SLOfit reporting system is to take a full advantage of the established national surveillance system Sports Educational Chart by informing the key stakeholders (parents, teachers, school management, school physician, municipal authorities) and making the feedback information utilizable in the planning and monitoring of interventions for improvement or preservation of physical effectiveness of children and youth. Within the project's framework we are planning to develop: a user-friendly individual report on somatic and motor development including the identification of deviations from past development in comparison with the development of peers, assessment of health risks, deriving from the development and recommendations for interventions (target group: parents, teachers, children, physician); a class report on somatic and motor development including the identification of deviations with peers and other classes on the national level, as well as recommendations for in-class interventions (target group: teachers); and a school report on somatic and motor development of pupils from individual schools that include key emphases regarding the past testing results of a school, the comparison with other schools and recommendations for school interventions (target groups: school management, school physician, municipal authorities).
Significance for science
The introduction of the on-line reporting system which would enable the feedback data flow to teachers and physicians with clear data visualisations and history of somatic and motor development of individual child would provide exceptional opportunities for the improvement of professional practice in schools and in local health institutions. The teachers would get a better insight into possible health risks of individual children and would be able to respond to these challenges by adopting more individualised or differentiated approaches in physical education teaching. At the same time, they would acquire a more detailed insight into the outcomes of a child’s past development and would be able to acquire also a role of advisors to parents in regard of children’s somatic and motor development. At the same time, the school physicians would get the complete overview of a child’s past somatic and motor development, and current status, a direct comparison with population means and also the warnings of possible health risks deriving from low physical fitness and excessive weight. This information would enable a much better diagnostic process.
On the scientific level, the project would develop various developmental curves (for all 8 SLOfit motor tests, weight, height, triceps skinfold and BMI) that will enable the classification of children and the assessment of thresholds of obesity-related health risks. This means that the project would develop the national references of all abovementioned measures that would substitute the use of some of the international references, which are obsolete and not suited for the evaluation of development of contemporary children (e.g. weight for age growth curves, height for age growth curves, BMI to age growth curves of the World Health Organization). Improved references would enable more precise scientific analyses of health risks of children and improved causal dependencies of various health and other environmental factors that influence somatic and motor development of children.
Significance for the country
Project is not directly linked to economy; however, project results can have important indirect effects on economy. Individual report about physical fitness can be very important for employers regards to work capacity and productivity of individual worker and for insurance companies for assessment of health risks of individuals. School reports could serve as basis for the shaping of public health policies on local level. If these policies are going to lead to successful implementation of interventions which are going to raise the level of health among youth, this could lead to considerably lower health risks in adulthood, less absence from work, higher productivity, higher satisfaction of the employees and consequential higher quality of work and higher profits.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2018,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2018,
final report
