Associations Between Health‐Related Physical Fitness and Accelerometry‐Based Energy Expenditure in Physiotherapy Workers
Marina Horvat, Gordana Grozdek Čovčić, Mihaela Grubišić, Lukrecija Jakuš · Physiotherapy Research International · 2026
Background: AND
Purpose: Although it has been assumed that higher physical activity (PA) levels will contribute to better physical fitness (PF) performance, the interplay between these two has yet to be investigated. Moreover, the majority of studies have been presented in children and adolescents, and older adults, while little is known about the correlation in the adult working population of physiotherapists. Therefore, the main
purpose of the study was to examine associations between objectively measured PA and health-related PF.
Methods: We recruited 50 physiotherapists (72.6% women) from several public and private settings in the city of Zagreb. The SenseWearArmbandPro3 (SWA), a triaxial accelerometer placed on the nondominant hand for 7 consecutive days, was used to capture total energy expenditure (TEE) and active EE (AEE). Cardiorespiratory fitness included the Harvard step test, and muscular fitness was composed of sit-ups in 60 sec and the Handgrip strength. Flexibility was evaluated using the Toe-touch test.
Results: TEE and AEE were moderately and positively correlated with the Harvard step test (r = 0.65 and 0.62, p 0.05). When models were adjusted for age, weaker, but significant positive correlations remained.
Discussion: The
Findings: suggest that both cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness are positively associated with PA, whereas no statistically significant association with flexibility was detected. Thus, it is not surprising that we obtained moderate to almost strong correlations between TEE and AEE with cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness.
Conclusions: In physiotherapists, TEE and AEE yield moderate correlations with health-related PF, especially for cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness.