Background and Aims of FitBack Scotland: We have good systems for child public health surveillance in Scotland, but physical fitness is absent from national surveillance. This absence is a particular concern because of the importance of physical fitness to health and other outcomes, and the chronic decline in child and adolescent cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness internationally reported in systematic reviews. Lack of surveillance usually leads to lack of meaningful action to deal with public health problems.
FitBack Scotland aimed to:
- Develop a prototype primary school-based system for national surveillance of fitness.
- Scope out how the prototype might be scaled up and used in national fitness monitoring in the future.
FitBack Scotland was funded by a Knowledge Exchange Grant in 2022 from the Scottish Universities Insight Institute. The FitBack Scotland surveillance system was developed based on FitBack principles and drew on expertise in child and adolescent public health surveillance, physical fitness, and health data science from the University of Strathclyde, University of Aberdeen, University of the West of Scotland and Public Health Scotland. FitBack Scotland was supported by the FitBack network with guidance from Prof Tuija Tammelin (JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland) and from Dr Jordan Smith (University of Newcastle, Australia).
FitBack Scotland Update and Current Status The prototype was completed in 2023 with resources available online. During school year 2023-2024 the fitness monitoring prototype has been piloted in schools. Further piloting is planned for school year 2024-2025 before scaling up.
FitBack Scotland Working Group
Dr Farid Bardid (Project Lead), Dr Andrew Dalziell, Prof John Reilly, University of Strathclyde
Cameron Stewart, University of the West of Scotland
Katie Wilde University of Aberdeen.
Contact for more information: Dr Bardid (farid.bardid@strath.ac.uk)