Abstract
The aim was to describe longitudinal trends in peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) among 14- to 19-year-old adolescents in Norway, and to examine effects of sex, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity (PA) level on VO2peak during adolescence. Of 124 invited students from two lower secondary schools in Norway, 116 eighth-grade students (61 boys and 55 girls; 14 years old at baseline) volunteered to participate. The study has a longitudinal design with 6 yearly repeated measures of body height and mass, VO2peak and PA level. VO2peak allometrically scaled to body mass raised to the power of 0.67 was measured using a walking or running incremental test on a treadmill, whereas PA level was self-reported. Among 696 possible observations, 555 (79.7%) were valid. Multiple linear regression and linear mixed model analyses were used to examine the associations between age, sex, BMI, PA level and VO2peak. VO2peak showed a non-linear pattern from age 14 to 19, with a distinct increase for boys peaking at age 17, while the results provide a flatter and more stable curve for girls. Sex, BMI and PA level together explained 43–71% of the variance in VO2peak at the different age levels. Sex and PA level contributed independently to explain a significant proportion of the variance in VO2peak at all measurement occasions, while BMI did not. Adjusted sex differences in VO2peak increased over time, from 26.5 ml·kg−0.67·min−1 at age 14 to 55.5 ml·kg−0.67·min−1 at age 19. The independent contribution from PA level to the variance in VO2peak increased from age 14 to 16 and then decreased. While PA level explained 32.5% of the total variance in VO2peak for 16-year-olds, this number was 14% in 19-year-olds. In conclusion, aerobic power showed a non-linear pattern during adolescence, peaking at age 17. Sex and PA level explained a large proportion of the variance in VO2peak, each of them being an independent contributor to VO2peak. Aerobic power is linked to improved health and seems to depend largely on sex and PA level in adolescents, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a sufficient PA level during adolescence.
Highlights
Since it may not be reasonable to assume that VO2peak in adolescents is proportional to body mass raised to the power of 1, we explored the scaling exponents in our sample separate for each sex, by using allometric regression
The regression estimates were significantly different from zero, and 0.67 was included in 11 of the 12 95% CI’s for ß. These values, given the 95% CI’s for both sexes and all measurement occasions, approximate the theoretically derived value of 0.67 (Åstrand et al, 2003), and, a common exponent was applied to both sexes; each individual’s absolute VO2peak was divided by body mass raised to the power of 0.67
Sex differences in VO2peak increased with time, and the strength of association between VO2peak and activity level varied over time, with an increase from the age of 14 to the age of 16, and thereafter a decrease
Summary
Cardiorespiratory physical fitness (CRF), frequently quantified as maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) (Bassett and Howley, 2000), has shown to be strongly and inversely related to risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mortality in both adolescents and adults (Ortega et al, 2008; Carnethon et al, 2009; Kokkinos and Myers, 2010; Dencker et al, 2012; Buchan et al, 2015; DeFina et al, 2015; Myers et al, 2015; Bangsbo et al, 2016). Low CRF is a predictor of premature all-cause and cardiovascular mortality independently of other risk factors, similar to that for cigarette smoking and elevated cholesterol levels (Kokkinos and Myers, 2010). Preventive efforts aimed at maintaining physical fitness and physical activity level through puberty are shown to have favorable health benefits in later years (Janz et al, 2000; Aarnio et al, 2002; Telama et al, 2006; Loprinzi et al, 2012)
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