At their own pace: Optimal walking speed in children and adolescents

Abstract

Materials and methods: An experimental study was carried out indoors in a sample of 74 children and adolescents of both sexes, between 7 and 14 years of age. Volunteers walked on a treadmill at six different speeds, and the gross cost of transport (CoT), minimum gross energy cost (minCoT), and optimal locomotion speed (OLS) were determined for each individual. These values were compared with the optimal values for adults, as reported in the literature.Results: Our results show that OLS is similar in boys and girls, and that there are no sex differences in minCoT. Older individuals, as a consequence of their larger size, spend more energy at their optimal speed than younger children.Discussion: Juveniles are not a real burden for the rest of the group in foraging societies, neither in energetic terms nor in locomotor efficiency, being able to achieve optimal walking speeds similar to adults. The so-called energetic dilemma for sexmixed walking groups does not affect juveniles when moving together with adults or in sex-mixed parties.

EVOBREATH. Datasets for evolutionary bioenergetics research on anthropology

“…Monitored locomotion trials were carried out in a sample of 74 urban children and adolescents of both sexes, aged 7–14 years, to estimate their optimal locomotion speed, their minimum cost of transport, and their energetic cost of walking (BioE8-CEIC 1815) [3 , 13] . Thus, participants walked on the treadmill during six phases corresponding to six different speeds (2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and, 7 km/h), with each phase lasting 5 min.…”

“…These data are also required to understand the evolutionary ecophysiological constraints of hominin past populations. Some of the raw data recorded in these datasets were analysed in a number of original research articles [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] .…”

BaYaka mothers balance childcare and subsistence tasks during collaborative foraging in Congo Basin

“…When we further took into account different categories (age class, sex, and kinship) of group members, we found that adults and females in foraging groups increase the mothers' foraging trip duration and mobility. The presence of independent children, who can walk on their own and join women's foraging trips, does not restrict women from travelling long distances in a larger range, which provides evidence that even young children can achieve adult-level walking capacity [47]. Crucially, consistent with the previous finding from Jang et al [18], we found that children in foraging groups, but not other adults, are likely to increase the net food returns of the mothers, highlighting the role of children as helpers during women's foraging trips.…”

Demandas energéticas de actividades de subsistencia en individuos subadultos. Contribuciones a la Ecología del Comportamiento humano

“…Concerning the BioE8 study (Mateos et al, 2021a), no significant differences were shown in the OLS and the minGross COT among sexes (Table 12, Figure 21 a and b), neither significant differences were appreciated in the breadth of the parabola by sex (F= 0.23; p-value= 0.63) (Table 12 and Figure 23). Non-adult individuals consume more Gross COT while walking at adult optimal locomotion speeds compared with their minGross COT at their non-adult optimal locomotion speed, but not significantly (Table 13).…”

“…*The Gross COT of our study represents the minGross COT . The column % Increase ("% Incremento) indicates the difference between the minGross COT of the nonadult individuals walking at their OLS according to Mateos et al (2021a) and the Gross COT estimated taking into account the OLS of the adult individuals following Wall-scheffler, (2012) and Wall-Scheffler & Myers (2013). There are no significant differences when these values are compared (p-value> 0.05).…”