The Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Cardiopulmonary System in Children

AIM: The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in cardiopulmonary system stimulated by aerobic exercise in different age group of children and to find out in which age group aerobic exercise is more effective. METHOD: Totally, 76 children participated in this study. Ages of the participants ranged between 11–17, and mean age was 14.08±0.65. Participants were divided into three groups according to their age range. There were 23 in the first and second and 30 participants in the third group, (15–17), (13–14) and 30 (11–12) respectively. Each of the groups then was divided into two parts one of which was experimental and the other was control group. During 8 weeks, a training programme based on doing aerobic exercise lasting one hour 3 days a week was performed in the experimental groups. Before and after training, EKG, spirometer, blood pressure, heart rate, PWC 170 test of the participants, which was the data collection method, were recorded. The results obtained were compared through t test method of SPSS. RESULTS: The results revealed a decrease in the systolic blood pressure and in the heart rate of those who did exercise as opposed to those who did not do exercise in Group I. In addition, R wave height in V6 of exercise group showed a statistically significant increase. As for second group, it was determined that the R/S, at V1 derivation obtained from the participants who did exercise showed a statistically decrease as compared to those of the participants who did not do exercise. In the third group, no changes were observed in the systolic blood pressure the heart rate, R wave height in V6 and R/S although the measures of PWC 170 test, VC and FVC obtained from all training groups made a significant increase when compared to those of control groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study revealed that of the three groups the 15–17 age group was affected mostly by the aerobic exercise on kardiyopulmoner sytem. The results suggest that the exercises performed with this group affected the participants positively, which should be taken into consideration for further research.