Background: Large scale population norms for peak oxygen uptake (VO 2peak ) during cycle ergometry (CE) have been published for men and women across a wide range of ages. Although upper body functional capacity has an important role in activities of daily living far less is known regarding the effect of age and sex on upper body functional capacity (i.e. arm crank ergometry; ACE). The aim of this review was to determine the effect of age and sex on VO 2peak obtained during ACE and CE in the same participants.
Method: The review was pre-registered with PROSEPERO (Ref: CRD42022349566). A database search using Academic Search Complete including CINAHL complete, CINHAL Ultimate, Medline, PubMed, SPORTDiscus was undertaken.
Results: The initial search yielded 460 articles which was reduced to 243 articles following removal of duplicates. Twenty-five articles were subsequently excluded based on title resulting in 218 articles considered for retrieval. Following review of the abstracts, 78 further articles were excluded leaving 140 to be assessed for eligibility. Eighty-five articles were subsequently excluded, resulting in 55 articles being included. The decrease in VO 2peak with age during CE was consistent with previous studies. Decreases in VO 2peak during ACE with age, although paralleling those of CE, appeared to be of greater functional importance. When changes in VO 2peak were considered below the age of 50 years little change was observed for absolute VO 2peak during ACE and CE. In contrast, relative VO 2peak demonstrated decreases in VO 2peak for both ACE and CE likely reflecting increases in body mass and body fat percentage with age. After 50 years of age absolute and relative VO 2peak demonstrated more similar and subtle responses. Heterogeneity across studies for both absolute and relative VO 2peak between ACE and CE was large. Although strict inclusion criteria were applied, the inter-individual variation in sample populations was likely the main source of heterogeneity. There was a considerable lack data sets available for ages above 40 years of age.
Conclusions: These responses suggest that upper body VO 2peak decreases in line with that of the lower body but, due to the lower peak values achieved during ACE, decreases in VO 2peak may have more profound functional impact compared to that for the lower body. Using absolute and relative measures of VO 2peak results in different age-related profiles when considered below 50 years of age. To further our understanding of whole body ageing more data is required for participants in mid and later life. The association between VO 2peak and underlying physiological factors with age needs to be studied further, particularly in conjunction with activities of daily living and independent living.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest MP, PS, LB and MH declare that they have no conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)