ARTICLE –
abstractPhysical
working capacity of 12-17 years old visually impaired boys and girls Irena Lyudmilova1, Diana Dimitrova2 1Kinesitherapy and Rehabilitation Department, National Sports Academy V. Levski, Sofia, Bulgaria 2 Sports Medicine Department, National Sports Academy V. Levski, Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract
Cardiorespiratory
endurance is an important component of health-related physical fitness
.The main factor for improving of aerobic fitness is physical activity.
Visually impaired children have lower level of habitual physical
activity than their counterparts with normal vision. The aim of this study was to examine the age- and sex-associated variations of PWC170
of visually impaired children and adolescents. In this study
participated 109 blind adolescents (64 boys and 45 girls), pupils at
both special schools for visually impaired children in Bulgaria, aged
between 12 and 19 years. Physical working capacity (PWC170)
was measured in watt, using Monark bicycle as a continuous test with
three workloads of 3 min each. Statistical significance between means
was tested by Student’s t-test. PWC170 increased
with age in blind boys from 70,7W to 100,5W, but showed statistically
insignificant variations between 12 and 19 years in blind girls (from
54,0 W to 60,1 W). There was strong sex difference in favour of boys. The PWC170 of visually impaired adolescents was about 70% of that of normal adolescents at the same age. When PWC170
was expressed per kilogram of body weight no significant difference was
found between age groups, but the differences between both sexes
remained significant. The expressing of PWC170 in relative
values didn’t change the difference between visually handicapped
and sighted boys and girls. The results showed that visually impaired
adolescents have considerably lower physical working capacity than
sighted adolescents, probably due to their low habitual physical
activity. That could negatively impact on their health and well-being.
Key
words:visually impaired, adolescents, physical working capacity
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