فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: This study examined the relationships among socioeconomic status (SES), physical activity (PA), physical fitness, and body mass index (BMI), and evaluated evidence for the fitness–obesity paradox among adolescent girls living in the hot, coastal climate of Bandar Abbas. Methods: A descriptive–correlational design was used. In total, 521 female students aged 10–18 years were selected from 12 schools across three educational levels through multistage cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Ghodratnama socioeconomic status questionnaire, the physical activity questionnaire for older children (PAQ-C), BMI, and a battery of physical fitness tests (40-m sprint, 4×9-m agility shuttle, Sargent vertical jump, 20-m shuttle run, and plank). Composite fitness scores were calculated as the mean Z-score across physical fitness tests. Results: Pearson correlation, multinomial logistic regression (to predict weight-status categories), and multiple linear regression (to predict continuous BMI) were used for data analysis. The results showed that SES was positively and significantly associated with PA, physical fitness, and BMI, whereas age showed a weak negative association with BMI (p<0.005). In the logistic model, SES was the only significant predictor of membership in the normal-weight and overweight/obesity groups (p<0.005) compared with the underweight group; PA and fitness displayed no independent effects. In the linear model, SES also significantly predicted BMI (p<0.005), while PA and fitness contributions were not significant. Conclusion : This pattern suggests that in the hot and relatively inactive context of Bandar Abbas, differences in body composition among adolescent girls are linked more strongly to socioeconomic conditions and the nutritional environment than to fitness per se, and that interpretations of the fitness–obesity paradox should be reconsidered within the local climatic and social context.