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256 Taiwan Development Perspectives 2009
III. Strategies for and Current Status of
Physical Fitness Development
Different countries have different physical education
policies for the development of physical fitness.
Strategies for the improvement of physical fitness also
differ. The authors of this article compare Taiwan’s
physical fitness data with those of its neighboring
countries, and attempt to analyze strategies applied in
advanced nations.
1. Physical Fitness for Children and Adolescents
in Taiwan and Neighboring Countries
(1) BMI
Table 3 shows that the BMI for Taiwan’s children
and adolescents aged 10-18 is higher than that for
their counterparts in Japan, Hong Kong, and China,
except for the 16-year-old girls whose BMI is slightly
lower than that of their Japanese opposite numbers.
As the BMI is an indicator frequently used to measure
obesity, it can be said that overweight or obesity among
children and adolescents are more serious in Taiwan
than in its neighboring countries. Figures shown in the
material collected by the International Association for
Study of Obesity [IASO] in 2008 from a study about
overweight and obesity in 56 major nations and regions
have proved the foregoing estimated situation in Taiwan.
A comparison of information gathered in six
countries in the Pacific area – New Zealand, Taiwan,
Australia, Singapore, Japan and China – brings out the
fact that overweight and obesity among Taiwan’s children
and adolescents ranks second in prevalence (based
on figures for males, see Table 4), a phenomenon that
cannot be overlooked.
Table 3 Comparison on BMI for Children and Adolescents Aged 10-18
Age
Country
Gender
Taiwan Japan Hong Kong China Taiwan Japan Hong Kong China
Male (BMI)
Female (BMI)
10 19.4 17.6 19.1 18.1 18.4 17.3 17.6 16.9
11 20.0 18.1 19.2 18.5 18.9 18.0 16.9 17.8
12 20.4 18.8 19.8 18.8 19.5 19.0 18.5 17.9
13 21.1 19.3 19.9 19.1 20.2 19.6 19.9 18.9
14 21.3 19.8 19.9 19.6 20.6 20.3 20.3 19.6
15 21.7 20.9 20.7 20.3 20.8 20.7 20.0 20.2
16 21.9 20.8 21.1 20.5 20.6 20.8 20.0 19.9
17 22.1 21.8 21.1 20.9 20.7 21.2 20.4 20.3
18 22.3 21.5 21.5 20.9 20.8 20.8 20.4 20.3
Notes: 1. Figures for Taiwan from 2005; 2.Figures for Hong Kong (aged 10-12 from 2005-2006; aged 13-18 from
2004-2005); 3.Figures for Mainland China from 2005, investigative target was urban children and adolescents;
4.Figures for Japan from 2007.
Source: Ministry of Education, Republic of China (2007b); Education Bureau, the Government of Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (2007); Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan
MEXT (2008); Ho Ling, Jen Hung (2007).