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 ( VO 2 ; an index of energy expenditure) for adults with and without DS . Method A total of 469 VO 2 observations during walking across different speeds were available from 54 adults with DS and 61 adults without DS . Results Significant predictors of VO 2 were speed, speed square, group and group‐by‐speed interaction. Separate models for each group showed that speed and its square significantly predicted VO 2 . Absolute per cent error was small and did not differ between groups. Conclusion Adults with DS have different VO 2 response to walking speed from persons without DS . VO 2 is predicted from speed with acceptable accuracy for persons with DS .