Reliability of Wingate testing in adolescents with Down syndrome

The Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) has not been used to assess individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and it is unknown if it is reliable in this population. We investigated the reliability of the WAnT in 19 adolescents with DS (age = 14.8 yrs; weight = 52.7 kg; height = 146.3 cm). Participants completed, on separate days, two standards WAnT using a resistance of 0.7 Nm x body weight (kg) in individuals > 14 years old, and 0.5 Nm x body weight (kg) in participants < 14 years of age. Data were analyzed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), dependent t tests and Bland-Altman plots. There was a significant difference between days for peak power (210.37 W vs. 236.26 W; ICC = 0.93), but not for mean power (158.72 vs. 168.71 W; ICC = 0.86), time to peak power (6.67 vs. 6.28 s; ICC = 0.69), or the fatigue index (9.33 vs. 5.43 W/sec; ICC = 0.09). Adolescents with DS exhibit low WAnT performance compared with previously published data on adolescents without DS and the reliability of WAnT is questionable in this population.