Age-related decline in peak oxygen uptake: Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal findings. A review

Abstract

Cardiorespiratory fitness is established as an important prognostic factor for cardiovascular and general health. In clinical settings cardiorespiratory fitness is often measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing determining the gold-standard peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). Due to the considerable impact of age and sex on VO2peak, results from cardiopulmonary exercise testing are typically assessed in the context of age- and sex-specific reference values, and multiple studies have been conducted establishing reference materials by age and sex using cross-sectional designs. However, crossectional and longitudinal studies have shown somewhat conflicting results regarding age-related declines of VO2peak, with larger declines reported in longitudinal studies. In this brief review, we compare findings from crossectional and longitudinal studies on age-related trajectories in VO2peak to highlight differences in these estimates which should be acknowledged when clinicians interpret VO2peak measurements repeated over time.