Appropriate scaling approach for evaluating peak VO₂ development in Southern Chinese 8 to 16 years old

by Clare C. W. Yu, Ali M. McManus, Chun T. Au, Hung K. So, Adrienne Chan, Rita Y. T. Sung, Albert M. Li

Objective

To investigate scaling approaches for evaluating the development of peak VO₂ and improving the identification of low cardiopulmonary fitness in Southern Chinese children and adolescents.

Methods

Nine hundred and twenty Chinese children and adolescents (8 to 16 years) underwent graded cardiopulmonary exercise test on a treadmill until volitional exhaustion. Peak VO₂ was corrected for the effects of body mass by ratio or allometric scaling. Z score equations for predicting peak VO₂ were developed. Correlations between scaled peak VO₂, z scores, body size and age were tested to examine the effectiveness of the approach.

Results

Eight hundred and fifty-two participants (48% male) were included in the analyses. Absolute peak VO₂ significantly increased with age in both sexes (both P<0.05), while ratio-scaled peak VO₂ increased only in males (P<0.05). Allometrically scaled peak VO₂ increased from 11 years in both sexes, plateauing by 12 years in girls and continuing to rise until 15 years in boys. Allometically scaled peak VO₂ was not correlated with body mass, but remained correlated with height and age in all but the older girls. Peak VO₂ z score was not correlated with body mass, height or age.

Conclusions

Absolute and allometric scaled peak VO₂ values are provided for Hong Kong Chinese children and adolescents by age and sex. Peak VO₂ z scores improve the evaluation of cardiopulmonary fitness, allowing comparisons across ages and sex and will likely provide a better metric for tracking change over time in children and adolescents, regardless of body size and age.