Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Juliana Souza de et al. Analysis of the rate of perceived exertion in the assessment of maximal respiratory pressures in children and adolescents. Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.3, pp. 314-320. ISSN 0104-1282.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the rate of perceived exertion in assessing maximal respiratory pressures in children and adolescents. METHODS: We evaluated 144 healthy children and adolescents from seven to eleven years old, 63 boys and 81 girls, students from public and private schools. The instrument used was a digital manovacuometer MVD300 (Globalmed ^®, Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil). A maximum of nine maneuvers were carried out, with one minute rest between each maneuver and five minutes between the measurement of maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures. The rate of perceived effort was determined by Borg scale and was used at four different moments: before measuring maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures, previously drawn; immediately after the first measurement; after five minutes of rest and immediately after the last assessment. RESULTS: The children and adolescents' perceived exertion before, immediately after and five minutes after assessment was 7.8 ± 1.8, 9.6 ± 2.5 and 8.5 ± 2.3, respectively. There was a significant increase after measuring maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures (p < 0.001). The amount of effort decreased significantly with five minutes of rest after maximal respiratory pressures (p < 0.05). The perceived exertion was similar for children and adolescents who underwent up to five or more maneuvers. CONCLUSION: The assessment of maximal respiratory pressures in children and adolescents proved to be a safe method regarding perceived exertion. It is suggested that the analysis of the rate of perceived exertion may be a common practice during the evaluation of respiratory muscle strength.

Keywords : child; adolescent; muscle strength; respiratory muscles; exercise test; perception.

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