Poor health-related physical fitness performance increases the overweight and obesity risk in older adults from Taiwan

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations between health-related physical fitness performance and overweight/obesity risk among Taiwanese healthy older adults. METHODS: A secondary dataset from the nationwide survey was applied in this study. Data from a total of 21,630 respondents aged 65–96 years were collected in this study. Demographic characteristics, life habits, perceived health status, anthropometric assessments, and health-related physical fitness measurements from this dataset were analyzed using the chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance, and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The results indicated that overweight and obesity significantly associated with health-related physical fitness performance in the Taiwanese older adult population. In particular, the upper extremity muscular endurance scores of older adults with poor activity and physical fitness scores revealed obesity as a critical indicator of health-related physical fitness performance. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies can use muscle quality or body fat classification to predict obesity in older adults, which could more precisely portray the relationship between obesity and health-related physical fitness performance.