Research question: The increase of physical exercise in fitness centres has turned these facilities in important active lifestyle promoters. However, only between 30% and 60% of subscribers still linked to the sports centre after a year. The aim of this study is to design a model to predict the drop out in fitness centres. Research methods: Monthly data corresponding to the actual behaviour of 14,522 members of three sport centres in Spain were recorded over the course of one year. In order to calculate the likelihood of drop out, logistic regressions were used to create predictive models for each centre. Results and findings: It was possible to predict abandonment of users of sport centres from their historical behaviour, although the predictive models obtained for each centre were not completely coincident. The effectiveness of the models was around 70%. Implications: The analysis of users’ behaviour in a fitness centre can allow to avoid the drop out and therefore the abandonment of physical activity. Segmenting the customers based on the likelihood of drop out may be useful for improving the effectiveness of the strategies of loyalty and for optimizing the organization of human and material resources.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) considers physical inactivity (PIA) as a critical noncommunicable factor for disease and mortality, affecting more women than men. In 2013, the WHO set a 10% reduction of the PIA prevalence, with the goal to be reached by 2025. Changes in the 2013–2017 period of physical inactivity prevalence in the 28 European Union (EU) countries were evaluated to track the progress in achieving WHO 2025 target. Methods: In 2013 and 2017 EU Special Eurobarometers, the physical activity levels reported by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire of 53,607 adults were analyzed. Data were considered as a whole sample and country-by-country. A χ2 test was used to analyze the physical inactivity prevalence (%) between countries, analyzing women and men together and separately. Additionally, PIA prevalence was analyzed between years (2013–2017) for the overall EU sample and within-country using a Z-Score for two population proportions. Results: The PIA prevalence increased between 2013 and 2017 for the overall EU sample (p < 0.001), and for women (p = 0.04) and men (p < 0.001) separately. Data showed a higher PIA prevalence in women versus men during both years (p < 0.001). When separately considering changes in PIA by gender, only Belgium’s women and Luxembourg’s men showed a reduction in PIA prevalence. Increases in PIA prevalence over time were observed in women from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia and in men from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. Conclusions: PIA prevalence showed an overall increase across the EU and for both women and men between 2013 and 2017, with higher rates of PIA reported for women versus men during both years. PIA prevalence was reduced in only Belgium’s women and Luxembourg’s men. Our data indicate a limited gender-sensible approach while tacking PIA prevalence with no progress reaching global voluntary reductions of PIA for 2025.

COVID-19 pandemic restrictions might have negatively affected the health-related physical fitness of children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to contrast the body composition and physical fitness data of two independent samples of children and adolescents obtained from an online database (DAFIS project) before (n = 15,287) and during (n = 2101) the first academic year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results revealed higher values for the body mass index (p = 0.002), waist circumference (p < 0.001), and waist to hip and waist to height ratios (p < 0.001) during than before the pandemic, particularly in the case of boys. On the other hand, lower muscular fitness was observed for girls during the pandemic. Quantitative and qualitative analysis did not detect relevant changes in cardiorespiratory fitness in children or adolescents (p > 0.05). Our data suggested that pandemic constraints might have affected body composition and muscular fitness of children and adolescents. These results might be of interest for designing specific interventions oriented toward counteracting the negative effects of pandemic restrictions on health-related physical fitness.

Studies on customer loyalty commonly use future behavioural intentions, even though these do not always correspond to actual behaviour. This study aimed to create a model for predicting dropouts at a sport centre based solely on actual customer behaviour. Monthly data corresponding to the actual behaviour of 1977 members at a sport centre in Spain were recorded over the course of one year; these data represented the historical behaviour of the participants. The variables selected to develop the model have been used by other authors to study behavioural loyalty, although in this study users were not surveyed. A dropout prediction model was created by means of logistic regression based on real and common records in the management of users at sports centres. The predictive model was formed by: age of the subjects, number of attendances to the sport centre and their duration, their link to the centre (length of membership and ex-members) and economic aspects. The model’s goodness of fit was considerably high showing more than 70% of effectiveness. These results suggest that the recording of historical behaviour from sport centres costumers can be a useful tool to predict the chance of dropping out.

The current study aimed at analyzing the relationship between body composition, adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD), and physical fitness (PF) in a young active population. A total of 1198 athletes (boys = 875; girls = 323) enrolled in different municipal sports schools participated in this study. Data on adherence to the MD (KIDMED questionnaire), anthropometric measurements, and PF (20 m shuttle run test, handgrip strength, vertical jump and forced spirometry) were collected. Results show that the pubertal boys had a higher score in the KIDMED test than the prepubertal ones (+0.38, p = 0.28). Moreover, boys with better adherence to the MD had significantly higher results in handgrip strength (+12.20 regarding low MD group and +9.13 regarding medium MD group, p < 0.05), as well as in forced vital capacity (FVC) (+0.66 regarding low MD group and 0.29 regarding medium MD group, p < 0.05). No differences were found in the girls. Finally, the result of the KIDMED test is a variable with a positive and significant relationship with cardiorespiratory fitness, along with the FVC, percentage of fat mass, and performance in the vertical jump (p < 0.05). It is concluded that adherence to the MD could show a relationship with various PF variables in boys and could be a predictor of cardiorespiratory fitness in both cases.

The main aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between how contests end (scores or penalties), the temporal units and the competition rounds regarding when the contest end in the 2018, 2019 and 2021 Judo World Championships. A total of 2340 contests involving 2244 elite judo athletes (1343 men and 901 women) were analysed. Pearson’s chi-squared (χ²) was implemented to analyse the association between variables, and the standardised residuals were used to analyse its interpretation; the strength of the associations was reported as Cramer’s V. Shapiro–Wilk and Kolmogorov–Smirnov were implemented to test the normality of the length of golden score (GS) sequences, and Kruskal–Wallis was applied for analysing GS sequences by championships. Mann–Whitney U was also implemented if a significant effect was detected. The level of significance was set at 0.05. The results were as follows: (1) Most contests ended before the accomplishment of the regular time (BRT), and they were won by ippon. (2) During BRT, the defeated accumulated more shido than the winner, while the opposite happened in contests finishing at the regular time (FRT). (3) Contests ending in the first and third minutes decreased, while contests ending in the second and fourth minutes increased; a longer length of the GS period was observed for women compared with men. (4) BRT contests were overrepresented in rounds 1 and 2, while extended time contests (EXT) in repechage, semi-final, bronze and final were overrepresented. (5) There were fewer waza-ari than expected during the preliminary rounds and more in the final rounds. The current study reveals cornerstone information that could be used to improve the training programs of elite judo athletes.