Bidirectional longitudinal associations of fatness with physical fitness in adolescents with Down syndrome. The UP&DOWN Longitudinal study

Background The aim of this study was to examine the bidirectional longitudinal associations of several markers of fatness and physical fitness in adolescents with Down syndrome. Methods This study comprised a total of 111 adolescents (41 females), aged from 11 to 20 years with complete data at the baseline. We had a drop-out of Our results show that all fatness variables at the baseline were associated with a 2-year change in cardiorespiratory fitness (beta ranging from -0.32 to -0.38; allp < .05), but not with muscular and motor fitness (p > .05). However, no associations were found between physical fitness components as predictors and fatness indicators (p > .05). Conclusions Results suggest that reducing fatness during adolescence might represent a modifiable factor to improve cardiorespiratory fitness at the 2-year follow-up, but notvice versasince associations were not bidirectional.