Fitkids Treadmill Test: Age- and Sex-Related Normative Values in Dutch Children and Adolescents.

Kotte, Elies M. W.; de Groot, Janke F.; Bongers, Bart C.; Winkler, Alexander M. F.; Takken, Tim

Background. Recent research has shown that the Fitkids Treadmill Test (FTT) is a valid and reproducible exercise test for the assessment of aerobic exercise capacity in children and adolescents who are healthy. Objective. The study objective was to provide sex- and age-related normative values for FTT performance in children and adolescents who were healthy, developing typically, and 6 to 18 years of age. Design. This was a cross-sectional, observational study. Methods. Three hundred fifty-six children and adolescents who were healthy (174 boys and 182 girls; mean age=12.9 years, SD=3.7) performed the FTT to their maximal effort to assess time to exhaustion (TTE). The least-mean-square method was used to generate sex- and age-related centile charts (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90, and P97) for TTE on the FTT. Results. In boys, the reference curve (P50) showed an almost linear increase in TTE with age, from 8.8 minutes at 6 years of age to 16.1 minutes at 18yearsof age. In girls, the P50 values for TTE increased from 8.8 minutes at 6 years of age to 12.5 minutes at 18 years of age, with a plateau in TTE starting at approximately 10 years of age. Limitations. Youth who were not white were underrepresented in this study. Conclusions. This study describes sex- and age-related normative values for FTT performance in children and adolescents who were healthy, developing typically, and 6 to 18 years of age. These age- and sex-related normative values will increase the usefulness of the FTT in clinical practice.

NETHERLANDS; BODY weight; CARDIOPULMONARY system; EXERCISE tests; PROBABILITY theory; QUESTIONNAIRES; REFERENCE values; RESEARCH funding; STATISTICAL sampling; SKINFOLD thickness; STATISTICS; STATURE; T-test (Statistics); DATA analysis; TREADMILLS; AEROBIC capacity; BODY mass index; CROSS-sectional method; LEAN body mass; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; MANN Whitney U Test; ADOLESCENCE; CHILDREN

Physical Therapy, 2016, Vol 96, Issue 11, p1764

0031-9023

Academic Journal

10.2522/ptj.20150399