Feasibility of 2 field-based cardiorespiratory function tests on adults with Down syndrome

Abstract

Aim

To identify the feasibility of 2 cardiorespiratory function field-based tests on adults with Down syndrome.

Methods

Thirty-three adults with Down syndrome (mean age 27.21 ± 8.76 years; 60.6% men) carried out the Mini-Cooper Test (MC) and the 16 m shuttle run test (16-m PACER). During the performance of both tests, heart rate was monitored with the aim of measuring the degree of effort shown by the participants. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess the level of concordance between both tests.

Results

Both the MC and the 16-m PACER were easy to administer, and understandable for all the participants. Significant differences were observed by sex. Men achieved greater distances than women in the MC (529.23 ± 127.45 vs. 690.00 ± 126.59 m), and reached more stages in the 16-m PACER (1.69 ± 1.07 vs. 3.15 ± 1.28). The analysis of the degree of effort showed that final heart rate obtained at the end of both tests were around 90% of the predicted maximum heart rate. A significant degree of correlation between the MC and the 16-m PACER was observed both in men (r = 0.567; sig = 0.043) and in women (r = 0.797; sig = 0.001).

Conclusion

The results of this study suggest that the MC and the 16-m PACER test can be safely performed by adults with Down syndrome in order to assess their cardiorespiratory function.