Reference percentiles for children and adolescents for the digital motor performance test (DigiMot): results from the COMO-study

Responding to the growing demand for scalable assessment tools, this study provides the first age- and sex-specific reference percentiles for remotely assessed physical fitness tests in German children and adolescents aged 7-15 years. Data from 1149 participants (554 male; 595 female) of the COMO-study were used to assess coordination, muscular endurance, and flexibility via videoconference with the DigiMot test profile. Percentile curves were generated using generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape. Results revealed typical developmental trajectories, with performance increasing with age and differing by sex and fitness component. An exception was the decline in girls’ Push-up performance with age. Boys outperformed girls in Push-ups and Sit-ups from early age, while girls initially surpassed boys in coordination until early adolescence. Girls (mean: 77.5%) achieved better results in the Stand-and-Reach across all age groups than boys (mean: 48.1%). Performance variability was generally higher in boys across all tests. These findings provide a foundation for age- and sex-specific reference values for remotely assessed physical fitness. By enabling standardized interpretation of remote test results, the percentiles support broader applications of remote fitness diagnostics in research and practice despite some limitations in sample representativeness and percentile stability in older age groups.