Aerobic capacity and cardiopulmonary response to exercise in healthy south Indian children.

OBJECTIVE To examine the cardiorespiratory response to exercise in healthy South Indian school children. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Cardiopulmonary Medicine Unit, Tuberculosis Research Center, Madras. SUBJECTS Data was obtained on 47 girls and 48 boys in the age group 7 to 14 years. INTERVENTION The children performed a graded maximal exercise stress test on a computerized treadmill system. RESULTS Maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) increased significantly at 11 years of age in both sexes but while boys showed a progressive increase beyond 11 years, girls did not. When corrected for weight, only boys at 14 years had a significant increase in VO2max/kg. Boys had higher values of VO2max/kg than girls at all ages. Minute ventilation and oxygen pulse values also increased in both sexes at 11 to 12 years. The VO2max of South Indian children was lower than the predicted values available for North American children when prediction equations based on height were used. However, when regression equations based on weight were used, the predicted values for North American and South Indian boys were similar, though values for the Indian girls were still low. CONCLUSIONS Nutritional and sociocultural factors may play a role in determining VO2max of children from different populations, rather than ethnic differences alone.