The primary purpose of this study was to compare the health-related physical fitness and physical activity behaviors of Old Order Mennonite children to both rural and urban-dwelling children living a contemporary Canadian lifestyle.
A cross-sectional study design was used to compare the physical fitness and physical activity characteristics of three groups of children between the ages of 8-13 yr. A total of 124 Old Order Mennonite children (OOM) from Ontario, Canada, were compared with contemporary living children from urban (USK, N = 110) and rural (RSK, N = 165) Saskatchewan, Canada. Fitness was assessed using measures of height, weight, triceps skinfold, grip strength, push-ups, partial curl-ups, and aerobic fitness. Physical activity levels were directly measured for seven consecutive days using a MTI Actigraph accelerometer model 7164.
After controlling for maturational age, analyses revealed that OOM children had a smaller triceps skinfold than USK children (P