Construction of A Physical Fitness Test Battery for Middle-Aged Women

Abstract

Proper measuring tools can provide the exact information about an individual’s fitness level. The purpose of the study was to construct a suitable physical fitness test battery and to develop norms for middle-aged women in the Indian population. A total number of 405 middle-aged Indian women of 40-59 years were selected from three basic occupations of homemaking, office job, and manual labor. They were divided into two groups 40-49 years (n=230) and 50-59 years (n=175). The selected physical fitness variables for the construction of the physical fitness test battery were strength, strength endurance, agility, flexibility, balance, coordination, gait velocity, and cardiovascular endurance, which were measured by the standard and valid tests such as hand grip dynamometer, wall squat test, figure of eight-run test, sit and reach test, one leg stand test, plate tape test, and 6 min walk test respectively. Descriptive statistics, normality of the data, Pearson product-moment correlation, and Percentile score were calculated by SPSS version 21. Cajori’s 5-grade evaluation norms were applied. The External validity of the newly constructed test battery was examined by using Eviews software version 9. Results revealed that the obtained data was normal and the selected variables were highly correlated. The Percentile scale revealed that the score from P0 -P100 for each variable for both the groups and grading was expressed in five grades such as excellent, good, average, below average, and poor. External validity confirmed the validity of the physical fitness test battery for middle-aged women across the world.