The present study was conducted to validate the applicability of Cooper's 12-minute run test (CRT) for predicting VO2max in male university students of Kolkata, India, to bypass the exhaustive and complicated protocol of direct estimation of VO2max. Eighty-eight sedentary male university students recruited by simple random sampling from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, were randomly assigned to the study group (N = 58) and the confirmatory group (N = 30). VO2max of each participant was determined by the direct procedure and the indirect CRT method. The mean value of predicted VO2max (PVO2max) (42.8±4.0 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1) with a range of 33.7-50.9) showed a significant difference with VO2max (39.8±4.0 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1) with a range of 33.5-47.7) in the study group. Limits of agreement between PVO2max and VO2max were large enough (0.10 to 5.94 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1)) with poor confidence intervals indicating inapplicability of the current protocol of CRT in the studied population. The prediction norm [Y = 21.01X - 11.04 (SEE = 0.193 ml · kg(-1) · min(-1))] was computed from the significant correlation (r = 0.93, P < 0.001) between distance covered in CRT and VO2max. Application of this norm in the confirmatory group revealed an insignificant difference between PVO2max and VO2max. The modified equation is recommended for application of CRT as a valid method to evaluate the cardiorespiratory fitness in terms of VO2max in sedentary male Indian youth.
Keywords: Cooper test; Indian; oxygen consumption; performance measurements; physical fitness; sedentary; validation studies; youth adults.