THE RELATION OF CARDIOVASCULAR TESTS TO MEASUREMENTS OF MOTOR PERFORMANCE AND SKILLS

Abstract

Children with congenital heart disease or asthma had marked decreases in physical working capacity but only slight changes from their predicted scores in most motor performance tests. Children with early muscular dystrophy had marked decreases from expected values in both physical working capacity and motor performance tests. Fitness apparently depends on the character of the test, and a patient must be severely and acutely ill or have a neuromuscular disease before significant changes occur in motor performance tests. Submaximal work load cardiovascular tests had a low or insignificant relationship to most tests of motor skills and performance, unless extremes of body build were eliminated or in trained subjects. Most motor performance and cardiovascular tests were highly specific with little correlation to each other, and varied in their relationship to height, weight, and physique. These variables played a minor role in motor performance tests with the possible exception of endurance events. Physical working capacity, however, correlated highly with many of these factors. Cardiovascular and motor performance tests had a similar relationship to age and sex. Both showed increases with age and a superiority of boys over girls. Physical working capacity values had less overlap at the earlier ages and less of the fluctuation or decreases in performance characterized by girls in the motor performance tests. Reports that American children were less fit than children from other countries are contradictory and open to criticism. The results depend on the type of tests, and differences between various geographical areas in this country were often as great as the differences between European and American children, even when similar tests were used. This suggests the need to exercise caution when comparing physical fitness tests and casts doubt on the use of such data as evidence that American children are physically unfit.