AEROBIC CAPACITY OF URBAN WOMEN HOMEMAKERS IN BOMBAY

Twenty-six healthy women homemakers residing in the metropolitan city of Bombay were studied on a treadmill and a cycle ergometer to determi ne their aerobic capacity (VO2 max) with a view to evaluating their ca rdio-respiratory fitness and ascertaining the job-demand-fitness-compa tibility in household activities. The VO2 max was found to be signific antly higher in treadmill experiments, i.e. 15% in absolute value and 18% in relative value, as compared with that obtained by cycle ergomet ry (p < 0.001). A much higher difference was observed in values derive d from the two methods on the same subjects (i.e. 28% in absolute valu e and 31% in relative value). Thus, the VO2 max obtained from treadmil l experiments may be regarded as the maximal aerobic power or the high est oxygen uptake that an individual can attain during exercise, which in the sample of the present study was recorded as 1.901 min-1 (33.9 ml kg-1 min-1). The findings also revealed that age and body weight ha ve a direct influence on VO2 max, which was found to be significantly correlated, positively with the latter and negatively with the former (p < 0.01 in both cases). The physiological job-demand of household ac tivities seems to be compatible in relation to the VO2 max of the home makers.