Neves CD; Lacerda AC; Lage VK; Lima LP; Fonseca SF; de
Avelar NC; Teixeira MM; Mendonça VA,

Plos One [PLoS One], ISSN:
1932-6203, 2015 Feb 06; Vol. 10 (2), pp. e0117563; Publisher: Public
Library of Science; PMID: 25659094;

Background: The application of the
Shuttle Walking Test (SWT) to assess cardiorespiratory fitness and the
intensity of this test in healthy participants has rarely been studied.
This study aimed to assess and correlate the cardiorespiratory
responses of the SWT with the cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CEPT)
and to develop a regression equation for the prediction of peak oxygen
uptake (VO2 peak) in healthy sedentary adult men.

Methods: In the first
stage of this study, 12 participants underwent the SWT and the CEPT on
a treadmill. In the second stage, 53 participants underwent the SWT
twice. In both phases, the VO2 peak, respiratory exchange ratio (R),
and heart rate (HR) were evaluated.

Results: Similar results in VO2 peak
(P>0.05), R peak (P>0.05) and predicted maximum HR (P>0.05) were
obtained between the SWT and CEPT. Both tests showed strong and
significant correlations of VO2 peak (r = 0.704, P = 0.01) and R peak
(r = 0.737, P<0.01), as well as the agreement of these measurements by
Bland-Altman analysis. Body mass index and gait speed were the
variables that explained 40.6% (R2 = 0.406, P = 0.001) of the variance
in VO2 peak. The results obtained by the equation were compared with
the values obtained by the gas analyzer and no significant difference
between them (P>0.05) was found.

Conclusions: The SWT produced maximal
cardiorespiratory responses comparable to the CEPT, and the developed
equation showed viability for the prediction of VO2 peak in healthy
sedentary men.