RESEARCH ARTICLE The impact of physical fitn d s

nd Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is a well-recognized cessible, people of all ages who might not otherwise have Wu et al. BMC Pediatrics (2015) 15:55 DOI 10.1186/s12887-015-0373-0AMS [9], and Honigman et al. reported an incidence ofYilan, Taiwan Full list of author information is available at the end of the articlephenomenon in people travelling to high altitude, and is characterized by symptoms of headache, nausea or vomit-ing, dyspnea, fatigue, poor appetite, dizziness, and diffi-culty sleeping [1]. AMS is especially prevalent at altitudes greater than 2500 m, [2] and its development in climbers is the reason for many mountain rescues [3-5]. An increasing number of children are traveling to high al-titudes on school expeditions or school adventure holidays, and during family expeditions [2]. Because transportation been exposed to high altitudes are now being exposed to high altitude conditions. Few studies have been published that have examined the incidence of AMS in children and adolescents, although the incidence of AMS in adults traveling to high altitudes is well documented. In adults, the incidence of AMS has been reported to range from 25 % (at 2975 m) up to 75% (at 5896 m) [2,6]. AMS has been recorded in both adults and children, but the relative incidence in children and ad-olescents compared to adults remains unclear, and it has been suggested that the incidence and severity of AMS may be inversely related to climbers ’ age [7,8] Hackett et al. found younger trekkers were more susceptible t