Hoffmann et al. (CHMS)
About this reference
The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) is a nationally representative survey conducted by Statistics Canada. Cycle 5 (2016-2017) included physical fitness testing at mobile examination centres. Vertical jump height was measured using a Leonardo Mechanograph Ground Reaction Force Plate (Novotec Medical GmbH), which records ground reaction forces during a countermovement jump with arm swing. The best of up to 5 trials (minimum 3) was recorded, sampled at 400-800 Hz. Jump height is derived by the manufacturer's software from the recorded force-time data rather than from flight time (method described in Veilleux and Rauch 2010, J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact 10:256-266). Table 4 reports percentile values at P5, P10, P20, P30, P40, P50, P60, P70, P80, P90 and P95 by sex for 16 age groups from 8-9 through 65-69. Note: the study authors caution that jumping norms should be compared only with data generated from the same force plate, given known systematic biases between measurement methods.
Known limitations
- Based on a Canadian sample, may not generalise to all populations, though a Norwegian study using the same protocol (Kjaer et al. 2016, DOI: 10.1186/s13102-016-0059-4) found comparable values
- The published n of 5,188 is the full cycle 5 fitness subsample across all five tests, not the vertical-jump sample; the article restricts the jump analysis to ages 8 to 69 and reports per-test counts only in a flowchart figure whose values are not given in the text
- The authors note the survey's health-related focus may have had a larger impact on recruiting fitter children and adolescents, so youth percentiles may sit slightly high
- No data for adults aged 70 and above; participants up to age 79 were eligible, but the published analysis stops at 69 because of small samples
- Force plate countermovement jump produces different values from field-based jump-and-reach tests; norms are not interchangeable across protocols
- P25 and P75 are FitnessNorms midpoint estimates from the published P20/P30 and P70/P80 columns, not percentiles printed in the article