The ALPHA health-related physical fitness test battery for children and adolescents.

1present the new health-related fitness test battery for youth based upon the work developed by the ALPHA (Assessing Levels of Physical Activity) study. The ALPHA was a study funded by the European Union (http://sites.google.com/site/alphaprojectphysicalactivity/Home) aimed “to provide a set of instruments for assessing levels of physical activity, its underlying factors (e.g. build environment, transport, and workplace), as well as, fitness in a comparable way within the European Union”. The work presented in this issue by Ruiz and colleagues relates to the working package 6 of the ALPHA project —Assessing Healthrelated Physical Fitness— aimed to “provide a set of valid, reliable, feasible and safe field-based fitness tests for assessment of health-related physical fitness in children and adolescents to be use in public health monitoring in a comparable way within the European Union”. At a population level, the regular screening of physical activity and physical fitness (including body composition) levels should be considered a public health priority, as the lack of physical activity and/or physical fitness are implicated in the aetiology and prevalence of several non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer and their risk factors (high blood pressure, raised blood sugar and overweight), affecting the general health population worldwide. 2