Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Reference on the Six-Minute Walk Test and Oxygen Consumption in Adolescents from South-Central Chile

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) provides oxygen to the exercising muscles and is related to body adiposity, with cardiometabolic variables. The aim was to develop reference values and a predictive model of CRF in Chilean adolescents. A total of 741 adolescents of both genders (15.7 years old) participated in a basic anthropometry, performance in the six-minute walk test (SMWT), and in Course Navette was measured. Percentiles were determined for the SMWT, for the V̇O 2 max, and an equation was developed to estimate it. The validity of the equation was checked using distribution assumptions and the Bland–Altman diagram. The STATA v.14 program was used ( p < 0.05). The 50th percentile values for males and females in the SMWT and in the V̇O 2 max of Course Navette were, respectively, from 607 to 690 and from 630 to 641 m, and from 43.9 to 45 and from 37.5 to 31.5 mlO 2 ·kg·min −1 , for the range of 13 to 17 years. For its part, the model to predict V̇O 2 max incorporated gender, heart rate, height, waist-to-height ratio (WHR), and distance in the SMWT (R 2 = 0.62; estimation error = 0.38 LO 2 ·min −1 ; p <0.001). Reference values can guide physical fitness in Chilean adolescents, and V̇O 2 max was possible to predict from morphofunctional variables.