Nigerian youth FitnessGram edge: A bright signal with important caveats

Figure 1 Schematic of cardiometabolic trajectories in Nigerian youth under lifestyle transition. The left panel illustrates the current context in many regions of Nigeria, where active daily living-walking to school, informal outdoor play, and household chores-supports high cardiorespiratory fitness, healthy body mass index, and a high prevalence of FitnessGram healthy fitness zone achievement. The right panel depicts an increasingly urbanized, sedentary environment characterized by motorized transport, screen-based leisure, and energy-dense diets, which is associated with declining fitness, rising overweight/obesity, and elevated cardiometabolic risk. A central branching pathway highlights the present moment as a window of opportunity: Proactive policies and school- and community-based interventions can preserve and enhance the favourable trajectory, whereas inaction may lead Nigerian youth to converge toward the adverse cardiometabolic profiles already seen in many high-income countries. CRF: Cardiorespiratory fitness; HFZ: Healthy fitness zone; CVD: Cardiovascular disease; BMI: Body mass index; PE: Physical education.