J Korean Acad Fam Med.  2003 Jun;24(6):556-564.

Changes of VO2max According to Sex, Age and Related Factors in Korean Adults

• Park JH
• Chang YJ
• Hwang SW
• Kim JS
• Kim KN
• Cho BL

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of data on Korean average VO2max values. This study attempted to yield average values of VO2max corresponding to each age group of Koreans. This study was also designed to investigate the factors associated with VO2max.
METHODS
From May 1st 1996 to January 30th 2000, we recruited 21,458 subjects who visited the health promotion center at one university hospital. We obtained the data related to age, exercise by self-administered questionnaire and weight, height and blood pressure by instrumental measurements and hemoglobin, cholesterol by overnight fasting blood sampling. VO2max was estimated by submaximal bicycle ergometer test.
RESULTS
The number of research subjects was 21,458: males 12,646 (58.9%) and females 8,812 (41.1%) and the average age was 48.6 (SD: ?10.05) years with age span from 20 to 79 years. The average VO2max was 26.4 (SD; ?6.77) (ml/kg/min) for men and was 19.8 (SD; ?5.94) (ml/kg/min) for women. Relating to factors such as age, VO2max, SBP, DBP, cholesterole, Hb, and body mass index, there were significant statistical differences between sex (p<0.05). For both sexes, VO2max decreased as age, cholesterol, BP and BMI increased. Regular exercise group showed significantly a higher VO2max than non-exercise group for both sexes.
CONCLUSION
The average VO2max values for Koreans, according to sex and age group are reported in this study. The decreasing VO2max may be attributed to increasing age, BP, cholesterol, BMI and non-exercise.

Keyword

VO2max; exercise; age; bicycle ergometer

MeSH Terms

Adult*
Blood Pressure
Body Mass Index
Cholesterol
Fasting
Female
Health Promotion
Humans
Male
Research Subjects
Surveys and Questionnaires
Cholesterol