Prediction of energy expenditure during walking in adults with down syndrome.

Background: When developing walking programmes for improving health in adults with Down syndrome (DS), physical activity professionals are in need of an equation for predicting energy expenditure. We therefore developed and cross‐validated an equation for predicting the rate of oxygen uptake (VO₂; an index of energy expenditure) for adults with and without DS. Method: A total of 469 VO₂ observations during walking across different speeds were available from 54 adults with DS and 61 adults without DS. Results: Significant predictors of VO₂ were speed, speed square, group and group‐by‐speed interaction. Separate models for each group showed that speed and its square significantly predicted VO₂. Absolute per cent error was small and did not differ between groups. Conclusion: Adults with DS have different VO₂ response to walking speed from persons without DS. VO₂ is predicted from speed with acceptable accuracy for persons with DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]