Higher socioeconomic status is related to healthier levels of fatness and fitness already at 3 to 5 years of age: The PREFIT project Mora González, José Rafael Samaniego Sánchez, Cristina Quesada Granados, José Javier Ortega Porcel, Francisco Bartolomé Body composition physical fitness preschoolers socioeconomic factors This study aimed to analyse the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and fatness and fitness in preschoolers. 2,638 preschoolers (3–5 years old; 47.2% girls) participated. SES was estimated from the parental educational and occupational levels, and the marital status. Fatness was assessed by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Physical fitness compo- nents were assessed using the PREFIT battery. Preschoolers whose parents had higher educational levels had lower fatness (P < 0.05). BMI significantly differed across occupational levels of each parent (P < 0.05) and WHtR across paternal levels (P = 0.004). Musculoskeletal fitness was different across any SES factor (P < 0.05), except handgrip across paternal occupational levels (P ≥ 0.05). Preschoolers with high paternal occupation had higher speed/agility (P = 0.005), and those with high or low maternal education had higher VO2max (P = 0.046). Odds of being obese and having low musculoskeletal fitness was lower as SES was higher (P < 0.05). Those with married parents had higher cardiorespiratory fitness than single-parent ones (P = 0.010). School-based interventions should be aware of that children with low SES are at a higher risk of obesity and low fitness already in the first years of life. 2024-07-03T10:42:52Z 2024-07-03T10:42:52Z 2019 info:eu-repo/semantics/article JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES 2019, VOL. 37, NO. 12, 1327–1337 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/92949 https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2018.1558509 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Routledge Taylor & Francis Group