Modification of the Fox method to predict maximum oxygen uptake in female university students of Kolkata, India

The present study was aimed to develop a simple method, i.e. the modified Fox test protocol (MFT) to predict VO2(max) in female sedentary university students of Kolkata, India. One hundred and eleven (111) healthy untrained female students of the University of Calcutta (mean age, body height and body mass of 22.76 ± 1.72 years, 163.52 ± 4.70 cm and 53.03 ± 3.78 kg, respectively) were randomly sampled for the study. They were further randomly divided into the study group (n = 60) and confirmatory group (n = 51). Direct estimation of the maximum oxygen uptake (VO2(max)) comprised an incremental bicycle exercise followed by expired gas analysis by the Scholander micro-gas analyzer. The submaximal heart rate (HR(sub)) was measured at the completion of five min of exercise at 110W workload. HR(sub) exhibited significant negative correlation (r = -0.87, P < 0.001) with VO2(max). Application of the computed norm in the confirmatory group depicted insignificant difference between VO2(max) and predicted VO2(max) or PVO2(max). Limits of agreement between PVO2(max) and VO2(max) were substantially small. The standard error of estimate of the norm was also substantially small. From the present study, MFT is recommended for application in the sedentary female university students for accurate and reliable assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness in terms of VO2(max).