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Biomedical subjects

J Puhl

Publications and source records attributed to J Puhl.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Reliability and variability of heart rate monitoring in 3-, 4-, or 5-yr-old children.

We describe the daily heart rate patterns and the between day and within day reliabilities of several heart rate variables measured in 159 Anglo-, African-, and Mexican-American children aged 3-5 yr. Heart rates were measured over 12 waking hours with a Quantum XL Telemetry heart rate monitor. There were no significant ethnic, gender, day of week, or season of the year differences in either mean resting heart rate, mean daily heart rate, mean longest duration of the heart rate sustained above 120 bpm for the day, nor percent of minutes of daily heart rate above 120 bpm. The reliabilities for these variables for 2 d of observation separated by 3-6 months ranged from 0.65 to 0.66. At this level of reliability, just over 4 d of recording are necessary to achieve a reliability of 0.80. All within-day across-hour reliabilities were greater than 0.80. However, for mean hourly heart rate and the longest duration of heart rate sustained above 120 bpm each hour, a principal components analysis revealed three distinct time components during the day. This suggests that monitoring heart rate during limited portions of the day will provide a biased estimate of overall heart rate. For the morning component, there were significant ethnic and gender differences in the children's heart rates and younger children had longer durations of heart rate sustained above 120 bpm than older children. Although daily heart rate monitoring is not a perfect indicator of children's physical activity, these data suggest that it may be a reliable measure among younger children from different ethnic and gender groups.

Black People↗
PubMed1991

Ethnicity, gender, and Type A differences in resting heart rate and blood pressure among young children.

We analyzed results of the Matthews Youth Test for Health for Anglo-American, black, and Mexican-American 5- and 6-year-old children to address three questions: (1) Do these children differ in the prevalence of type A behavior pattern or its component scales? (2) Are blood pressures or heart rates related to ethnicity, gender, or type A behavior pattern? (3) Can possible confounding factors account for observed differences? We identified several differences related to traditional risk factors: (1) Mexican Americans had the lowest systolic blood pressure, (2) girls had higher diastolic blood pressures than boys, and (3) black and Mexican-American boys had lower heart rates. Our analysis also revealed a significant gender-ethnicity interaction. Anglo- and Mexican-American girls had lower impatience-aggression scores than any other group. We detected no interaction effects for competitiveness scores, nor was there any significant relationship between competitiveness and blood pressure. We did find relationships between type A behavior pattern and blood pressure; these relationships were strengthened by use of the impatience-aggression subscale. Use of covariates strengthened observed associations. We conclude that the effects of type A behavior pattern on cardiovascular disease may be mediated by conventional risk factors.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1990

Children's Activity Rating Scale (CARS): description and calibration.

A five-level Children's Activity Rating Scale (CARS) was designed to categorize the intensity of physical activities and discriminate between levels of energy expenditure in young children. The CARS was used by trained observers over a 12-month period to assess physical activities of 3-4 year-old children during field observations. Agreement among observers using the CARS was 84.1% for 389 paired observation periods. The energy expenditure for each level was assessed by measuring VO2s and heart rates of 5-6 year-old children (12 boys, 13 girls) while they performed eight activities representing the CARS levels. Mean VO2s for the eight activities in Levels 1-5 ranged from 7.1 to 37.5 ml.kg BW-1.min-1 (1 to 5.42 METS; 14.5% to 80.6% of VO2max). Mean heart rates ranged from 89 to 183 b.min-1 for activities in Levels 1-5. VO2s and heart rates at each level were significantly different from all other levels. These data demonstrate that the CARS encompasses a wide range of energy expenditures, discriminates between levels of energy expenditure, and can be used by trained observers to reliably evaluate physical activity and estimate energy expenditure of young children.

Body Weight↗
PubMed1989

Ethnic differences in anthropometric characteristics of young children and their parents.

The distribution of body fat, or fat patterning, is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, independent of obesity. Furthermore, the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes varies by ethnicity. We documented ethnic differences in anthropometric characteristics and body fat distribution between Anglo, Black, and Mexican American men (n = 101), women (n = 245), boys (n = 111), and girls (n = 111). We used aggregates of skinfold measures to examine ethnic differences in the deposition of fat in body compartments (body, trunk, leg, and arm) and analyzed trunk-extremity skinfold ratios to determine which best reflected ethnic differences in fat distribution. The results show that Mexican American mothers have larger skinfold ratios and more body fat (as determined by skinfold aggregates) than either Anglo or Black American mothers, whereas Black American mothers have larger ratios than Anglo American mothers. Mexican American fathers also have larger skinfold ratios but not more body fat (skinfold aggregates) than Anglo American fathers. Mexican American fathers have more body fat than Black American fathers, but we found no differences between skinfold ratios. The ethnic differences among children in skinfold ratios and aggregates are similar to those found among fathers, with more differences among girls than boys. Fat patterning differences do exist among the three ethnicities, with greater trunk fat among Mexican and Black Americans. Those ethnicities are known to be at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Physical and physiological characteristics of elite women volleyball players.

The purpose of this study was to compare various physical and performance characteristics of two elite groups of athletes, the 1980 U.S. Women's National Volleyball Team and the collegiate players who composed the 1979 U.S. Women's University Games Volleyball Team. The characteristics compared were age, height, weight, body composition determined via hydrostatic weighing, vertical jumping distance, vertical jumping height, maximal oxygen consumption, heart rate max and respiratory exchange ratio. Significant differences (p less than 0.05) in age (23 +/- 2.6 yr. and 21.5 +/- 0.7 yr.), percent of body fat (11.7 +/- 3.7% and 18.3 +/- 3.4%), and vertical jumping distance (52.4 +/- 4.5 cm and 45.5 +/- 6.4 cm), between the two teams were demonstrated, with the National Team being significantly older, having a lower percentage of body fat and possessing a larger vertical jumping distance. These results indicate trainers of elite (national and international caliber) women volleyball players should consider including techniques to reduce percentage of body fat and increase vertical jumping distance.

Adult↗