Normative Data of Maximal Oxygen Consumption (VO2 Max) among Healthy Young Adults: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) is the maximum quantity of oxygen a person can consume, and it remains constant over time despite increased exertion. The amount of oxygen consumed by the working muscles is measured by maximal oxygen consumption. The maximal oxygen uptake can be measured using maximal or submaximal tests, by gas analyser or field methods. The estimated VO2 max can be used to study people’s fitness and raise awareness about physical activity and lifestyle changes. Aim: To determine the VO2 max values using a direct method and provide normative data of VO2 max for healthy young adults in the age group of 18-25 years in both sexes. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee of RUHS College of Medical Sciences, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. A total of 419 healthy young adults (male and female students) were recruited from RUHSCollege of Medical Sciences and MNIT College, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India from January 2019 to March 2020. Anthropometric data included age, height, weight according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and followed by measurement of VO2 max using a gas analyser of AD-Instrument (model-ML206). Collected data was entered in Microsoft excel. Paired t-test was used to compare mean and Standard Deviation (SD) of variables between male and female participants. The p-value of <0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The study was conducted on 419 apparently healthy college students (275 male and 144 female). The mean VO2 max value for males was 45.30±7.35 mL/kg/min and for females it was 35.71±5.29 mL/kg/min, which was found to be significantly higher in males than in females. The mean VO2 max among the largest proportion of the males (27.63%) falls in the ‘Good’ category of cardiorespiratory fitness scale and the largest proportion of the females (32.63%) falls in the ‘Fair’ category of cardiorespiratory fitness scale. Conclusion: The value of VO2 max was lower in the Indian population than in the western population, when value obtained from this study was compared with the standard normative value of cardiorespiratory fitness. Therefore, the values obtained in this study could serve as a normative for the Indian population.

Prediction of peak oxygen consumption using cardiorespiratory parameters from warmup and submaximal stage of treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise test

“…Actually, due to: a) the growing development of aforementioned measurement devices, b) availability of simply field-based tests such as incremental shuttle walk test [15,16] and c) new statistical prediction models and equations, clinicians and/or researchers are able to estimate VO 2peak , and/or VO 2max (it is however not the subject of this study), based on selected parameters without performing maximal CPET [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Unfortunately, estimated VO 2peak using, e.g., only 6-min Walk Test distance demonstrated poor agreement with measured VO 2peak from a CPET [23].…”

Determining cardiovascular fitness normative reference values in a university aged Canadian population using maximal exercise testing

“…VO 2max provides an indication of aerobic power, which is an important component of health-related physical fitness, as it is closely related to heart function (since VO 2max is the product of maximal cardiac output and the arterial-venous difference) [5]. If a participant has a low VO 2max value, then they will be less able to produce energy via aerobic means, which may then be associated with the development of cardiovascular disease risk factors [7,10,11,23]. VO 2max can provide a good indication of a person's health status and also allow the monitoring of progress in a fitness program [5,11].…”

“…Since maximal values are affected by several factors [11], it is important to define the population when creating normative reference values. VO 2max values have been found to be lower in women [6,7,14,17,26,27,31], vary inversely with age [3,24] and vary directly with height [11], body surface area [11], and body weight [11,24], and change based on training state [5,11,24,34]. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to develop normative reference values and a classification system for a university aged Canadian young-adult population.…”

Prediction of peak oxygen consumption using cardiorespiratory parameters from warm-up and submaximal stage of treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise test

“…Actually, thanks to: a) the growing development of aforementioned measurement devices, b) availability of simply field-based tests such as incremental shuttle walk test (15,16) and c) new statistical prediction models and equations, clinicians and/or researchers are able to estimate VO 2peak , and/or VO 2max , based on selected parameters without performing maximal CPET (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Unfortunately, estimated VO 2peak using, e.g., only 6-min Walk Test distance demonstrated poor agreement with measured VO 2peak from a CPET (23).…”