Oxygen uptake efficiency slope during exercise in adults with Down syndrome

Background Persons with Down syndrome ( DS ) have low aerobic exercise capacity. The present authors sought to compare the oxygen uptake efficiency slope ( OUES ) between adults with and without DS performing graded exercise testing ( GXT ) and to investigate its relationship with peak oxygen uptake ( VO 2peak ) in both groups of participants. Method Twenty‐three participants with DS and 24 non‐disabled controls performed GXT with VO 2 measurements. OUES was calculated from data of the first 75%, 90% and 100% GXT time. Multiple linear regression analyses were computed to explore associations between the independent ( OUES and DS ) and the dependent variables ( VO 2peak ). Results VO 2peak , GXT time and OUES were lower in participants with DS ( p < .05). OUES and DS explained 69.3% of the variance in VO 2peak . Conclusions Our findings show that OUES values are lower in persons with DS . Additionally, it was shown that OUES has predictive value for VO 2peak estimations in DS .