Prediction of the aerobic demand of walking in children.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to develop a generalized equation to predict VO2 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 x 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 VO2. RESULTS Stepwise regression analyses indicated that the following equation was best suited to predict walking VO2: VO2 = 24.852 + 0.003214 (walking speed in m x min(-1))2 - 0.995 (age in yr) - 0.263 (walking speed); R = 0.95; SEE = 1.74 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1). Bland-Altman analysis revealed that 95% of the differences between actual and predicted VO2 values fell within a range of 3.39 to -3.43 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1). CONCLUSION We conclude that VO2 during level treadmill walking can be predicted accurately in healthy young children.