Queen's College Step Test as an Alternative of Harvard Step Test in Young Indian Women

Abstract

Young Indian men often report pain in the lower limbs causing premature exhaustion while performing the Harvard step test (HST) for measurement of physical fitness index (PFI). But, the Queen's college step test (QCT) is quite easily performed by them. 155 males of 19-24 years were selected for the study from the Institute of Dental Sciences, UP, India to evaluate the applicability of QCT as an alternative to HST. Selected subjects were divided into a study group (n=100) and a confirmatory group (n=55). All subjects performed QCT comfortably but 35 of them (20 from the study group and 15 from the confirmatory group) could not perform the HST properly due to premature fatigue in their legs and they were excluded from the study. Existence of a significant correlation (r=-0.91, P<0.001) between PR and QCT heart rate depicted the following prediction norm: PR = 130.907 1.503 × QCT heart rate (SEE = 1.503) Prediction of PFI by this norm in the confirmatory group showed insignificant variation with the directly measured value from the HST. Bland and Altman's analysis also indicated that QCT norm predicts the PFI with a 95% confidence interval. Therefore, QCT is recommended as a valid and authentic test for evaluating PFI in young men of India. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR