Determination of peak cardiorespiratory fitness parameters in children: which averaging method should we use?

The purpose of this study was to identify which averaging methods most accurately measures peak cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) parameters [peak O uptake (VO), peak Opulse and peak respiratory exchange ratio (RER)] in a sample of healthy children and adolescents. In this cross-sectional multicenter study, we recruited 278 healthy children aged 12-17 years. We compared the mean peak value of three CRF parameters using the recommended averaging methods (30-second block average) with alternative averaging methods such as moving averages or shorter smoothing periods.