Scientific Quality of Field Tests to Calculate VO2max: Systematic Review

Abstract

Objective: To establish the scientific quality of the field tests used to calculate the maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max) in untrained healthy adults. Materials and methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature on diagnostic tests for calculating VO2max through field tests published between 1943 and 2013 in Spanish, English and Portuguese, , in order to synthesize the results and establish which are the best to correlate with direct measurement (ergospirometry). MedLine, PubMed, ProQuest, Ovid, Hinari, Ebsco and BVS databases were consulted. The recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions 2006 were followed. Results: Initially, 952 articles were found, after the elimination process was reached, ten of these met all requirements. Field tests analyzed to correlate well with the laboratory protocol are: umtt (1984) r = 0.99, qcst and 1000m. men r = 0.95; rwft men’s r = 0.93; 1,000m. Women and 1.5M r = 0.86; qcst women r = 0.83 and rwft for women r = 0.74, for adults umtt r = 0.96 and 20m-SRT r = 0.9. Conclusions: Given the validity coefficient and the see, it is possible to use field tests to swiftly and economically calculate VO2máx in untrained healthy adults. Different field tests are recommended according to age, gender, physical condition and pathologies.