Tracking of aerobic fitness from adolescence to mid-adulthood.
BACKGROUND
Although adults' aerobic fitness is known to be correlated with cardiovascular disease risk, the longitudinal relationship with adolescent aerobic fitness is poorly described.


OBJECTIVE
To longitudinally investigate the relationship between aerobic fitness during adolescence and adulthood.


METHODS
Participants (207 boys, 149 girls) aged 7-17 years performed annual measures of VO2peak. In adulthood (40 and 50 years), 78 individuals (59 males and 18 females) were reassessed. Serial height measurements were used to estimate age at peak height velocity (APHV). During adolescence, VO2peak was measured via a treadmill test to voluntary exhaustion; adult VO2peak was assessed using submaximal predictive tests. Correlations were tested using Spearman's rho. ANCOVA was used to assess adult VO2peak group differences based off APHV VO2peak groupings (low, average or high).


RESULTS
When sexes were pooled, moderate tracking existed from 2 years prior to APHV to APHV and APHV to 2 years after APHV (0.46, p < 0.001 and 0.35, p < 0.01, respectively). Correlations between APHV and adult values were low when sexes were pooled (p < 0.05). Comparisons of aggregated sexes revealed the low adolescent VO2peak group had lower values in adulthood relative to other groups (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Aerobic fitness has a low tracking between APHV and adulthood.
College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon , SK , Canada .
C
C
Van Oort
S A
SA
Jackowski
J C
JC
Eisenmann
L B
LB
Sherar
D A
DA
Bailey
R
R
Mirwald
A D G
AD
Baxter-Jones
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D010809:Physical Fitness; D012525:Saskatchewan