{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T19:36:16Z","timestamp":1790710576469,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,22]],"date-time":"2022-12-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1671667200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Universidad Santo Tom\u00e1s (Bogot\u00e1, Colombia)","award":["CEI-1705228-27"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CEI-1705228-27"]}]},{"name":"Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory (Texas A&amp;M)","award":["CEI-1705228-27"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CEI-1705228-27"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The academic curriculum has shown to promote sedentary behavior in college students. This study aimed to profile the physical fitness of physical education majors using unsupervised machine learning and to identify the differences between sexes, academic years, socioeconomic strata, and the generated profiles. A total of 542 healthy and physically active students (445 males, 97 females; 19.8 [2.2] years; 66.0 [10.3] kg; 169.5 [7.8] cm) participated in this cross-sectional study. Their indirect VO2max (Cooper and Shuttle-Run 20 m tests), lower-limb power (horizontal jump), sprint (30 m), agility (shuttle run), and flexibility (sit-and-reach) were assessed. The participants were profiled using clustering algorithms after setting the optimal number of clusters through an internal validation using R packages. Non-parametric tests were used to identify the differences (p &lt; 0.05). The higher percentage of the population were freshmen (51.4%) and middle-income (64.0%) students. Seniors and juniors showed a better physical fitness than first-year students. No significant differences were found between their socioeconomic strata (p &gt; 0.05). Two profiles were identified using hierarchical clustering (Cluster 1 = 318 vs. Cluster 2 = 224). The matching analysis revealed that physical fitness explained the variation in the data, with Cluster 2 as a sex-independent and more physically fit group. All variables differed significantly between the sexes (except the body mass index [p = 0.218]) and the generated profiles (except stature [p = 0.559] and flexibility [p = 0.115]). A multidimensional analysis showed that the body mass, cardiorespiratory fitness, and agility contributed the most to the data variation so that they can be used as profiling variables. This profiling method accurately identified the relevant variables to reinforce exercise recommendations in a low physical performance and overweight majors.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph20010146","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,23]],"date-time":"2022-12-23T01:42:13Z","timestamp":1671759733000},"page":"146","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Profiling Physical Fitness of Physical Education Majors Using Unsupervised Machine Learning"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2634-1220","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diego A.","family":"Bonilla","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division, Dynamical Business & Science Society\u2014DBSS International SAS, Bogot\u00e1 110311, Colombia"},{"name":"Research Group in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universidad Distrital Francisco Jos\u00e9 de Caldas, Bogot\u00e1 110311, Colombia"},{"name":"Research Group in Physical Activity, Sports and Health Sciences (GICAFS), Universidad de C\u00f3rdoba, Monter\u00eda 230002, Colombia"},{"name":"Sport Genomics Research Group, Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV\/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5545-0127","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Isabel A.","family":"S\u00e1nchez-Rojas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Grupo de Investigaci\u00f3n Ciencias Aplicadas al Ejercicio, Deporte y Salud\u2014GICAEDS, Universidad Santo Tom\u00e1s, Bogot\u00e1 205070, Colombia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8973-1541","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dar\u00edo","family":"Mendoza-Romero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Grupo de Investigaci\u00f3n Ciencias Aplicadas al Ejercicio, Deporte y Salud\u2014GICAEDS, Universidad Santo Tom\u00e1s, Bogot\u00e1 205070, Colombia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yurany","family":"Moreno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division, Dynamical Business & Science Society\u2014DBSS International SAS, Bogot\u00e1 110311, Colombia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4714-5285","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jana","family":"Ko\u010d\u00ed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division, Dynamical Business & Science Society\u2014DBSS International SAS, Bogot\u00e1 110311, Colombia"},{"name":"Department of Education, Faculty of Education, Charles University, 11636 Prague, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luis M.","family":"G\u00f3mez-Miranda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Sports Faculty, Autonomous University of Baja California, Tijuana 22390, Mexico"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel","family":"Rojas-Valverde","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"N\u00facleo de Estudios para el Alto Rendimiento y la Salud (NARS-CIDISAD), Escuela Ciencia del Movimiento Humano y Calidad de Vida (CIEMHCAVI), Universidad Nacional, Heredia 863000, Costa Rica"},{"name":"Cl\u00ednica de Lesiones Deportivas (Rehab&Readapt), Escuela Ciencia del Movimiento Humano y Calidad de Vida (CIEMHCAVI), Universidad Nacional, Heredia 863000, Costa Rica"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5678-1000","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge L.","family":"Petro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division, Dynamical Business & Science Society\u2014DBSS International SAS, Bogot\u00e1 110311, Colombia"},{"name":"Research Group in Physical Activity, Sports and Health Sciences (GICAFS), Universidad de C\u00f3rdoba, Monter\u00eda 230002, Colombia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3906-1658","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Richard B.","family":"Kreider","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Exercise & Sport Nutrition Laboratory, Human Clinical Research Facility, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"246","DOI":"10.22267\/rus.161802.35","article-title":"Tipolog\u00edas de estilos de vida en j\u00f3venes universitarios","volume":"18","author":"Cuevas","year":"2016","journal-title":"Univ. y Salud"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"91","article-title":"Cambios en la condici\u00f3n f\u00edsica de j\u00f3venes aparentemente sanos desde su ingreso a la universidad","volume":"8","year":"2020","journal-title":"VIREF Rev. 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