Prediction of the aerobic demand of walking in children

MORGAN, D. W., W. TSEH, J. L. CAPUTO, D. J. KEEFER, I. S. CRAIG, K. B. GRIFFITH, M.-B. AKINS, G. E. GRIFFITH, G. S. KRAHENBUHL, and P. E. MARTIN. Prediction of the aerobic demand of walking in children. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 2097–2102, 2002. Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop a generalized equation to predict V̇O2 during level treadmill walking in young boys and girls. Methods On an annual basis from ages 6 to 10, 23 able-bodied children (14 girls, 9 boys) completed six 5-min walking bouts at speeds ranging from 40.2 to 107.2 m·min−1. Before testing, each child received 60 min of treadmill walking practice. During the last 2 min of each walking trial, a 2-min sample of expired gas was collected in a meteorological balloon and analyzed to determine V̇O2. Results Stepwise regression analyses indicated that the following equation was best suited to predict walking V̇O2: V̇O2 = 24.852 + 0.003214 (walking speed in m·min−1)2 − 0.995 (age in yr) − 0.263 (walking speed); R = 0.95; SEE = 1.74 mL·kg−1·min−1. Bland-Altman analysis revealed that 95% of the differences between actual and predicted V̇O2 values fell within a range of 3.39 to −3.43 mL·kg−1·min−1. Conclusion We conclude that V̇O2 during level treadmill walking can be predicted accurately in healthy young children.