ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2018 October;177(10):587-91

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.17.03729-9

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The level of health-related fitness of male blind versus sighted pupils

Yaaqoub CHEIKH ✉, Bachir KASMI, Mohamed MEHIDI

Department of Physical Education, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie d’Oran Mohamed Boudiaf, Oran, Algeria

BACKGROUND: There is no doubt that the persons with visual impairment or blindness are suffering from lack of physical activity, which threatens his health and making him at risk.
METHODS: Therefore, we selected a sample comprised of 60 pupils (30 persons with visual impairment or blindness and 30 sighted ones) all of them were boys, the age average was 16.61 (0.52) for the persons with visual impairment or blindness and 16.56 (0.69) for the others. We based our research on books and scientific journals, site visits, and personal meeting. We used the descriptive method and carried out all tests and measures in a special courtyard of sport and physical education in El-Khawarizmi school and in the center of the disabled people in Tlemcen. We have done a race test to the pupils over a distance of 1 mile to measure their cardio respiratory fitness level and we used push-ups and sit ups tests, we also applied the test of the jump from the stability and the flexibility, to measure the endurance of musculoskeletal, we also measured skin folds in 3 different areas (the chest, abdomen and mid-thigh) to get the body fat percentage.
RESULTS: We conclude from our results that persons with visual impairment or blindness have a lower level of health- related fitness in comparison with sighted ones.
CONCLUSIONS: We conclude from our obtained results in this research that persons with visual impairment or blindness suffer from a clear lack of level of health-related fitness in comparison with sighted students. That is why we should reinforce in general the level of physical activities, the practice of physical education and sport, particularly to preserve the general health of this important category of the society. Our hope is get more research will be done about this thematic in the future to propose a physical program adapted to improve the level of health-related fitness for the blind students.

KEY WORDS: Child health - Physical fitness - Blindness - Cardiorespiratory fitness - Physical endurance - Musculoskeletal development