Maximal aerobic capacity of Canadian schoolchildren: prediction based on age-related oxygen cost of running.

Timed distance runs were administered to a random sample of 2,683 schoolchildren aged 7--16 years. Oxygen uptake was then measured during level treadmill running over a range of submaximal speeds in a randomly selected subsample of 134 children with approximately equal representation according to age and sex. The VO2--running speed relationship was found to be related to age with the younger children having a greater VO2 per kg body weight than the older children when running at the same absolute speed. Based on the relationship found between measured VO2max and VO2max predicted according to field test performance, corrected for age-related differences in running efficiency, VO2max was predicted for all 2,683 children. When expressed per kg of body weight, VO2max was highest in girls at age 11 (approximately 44 ml/kg) and in boys at age 14 (approximately 54 ml/kg); however, differences among ages were nonsignificant. At all ages VO2max for the boys was significantly higher than that for the girls. At all ages, values were higher than those previously reported for Canadian schoolchildren.

Distinctions between organic brain syndrome and functional psychiatric disorders: based on the geriatric mental state interview.

Discriminant function analysis was employed to study the ability of the Geriatric Mental Status interview to distinguish between patients diagnosed by the project as having an organic brain syndrome or a functional psychiatric disorder. In both New York and London, patients with organic brain syndrome scored significantly higher (p less than 0.05) than those with functional disorders on the factors of impaired memory, disorientation and incomprehensibility and significantly lower on the factors of depression and somatic concerns. Discriminant functions calculated from data on the New York and London patients separately significantly distinguished not only the patients on whom the functions were based but the patients in the other sample as well.