ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 June;38(2):149-57

Copyright © 1998 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Cardiovascular fitness, physical activity and selected coronary heart disease risk factors in adults

Suzuki I. ¹, Yamada H. ², Sugiura T. ², Kawakami N. ³, Shimizu H. ³

¹ College of Business Administration, Aichi Gakusen University, Japan; ² Toyota Koseiren, Ka-Mou Hospital, Toyota City, Japan; ³ Department of Public Health, Gifu University School of Medicine, Japan

Back­ground. The aim was to inves­ti­gate the asso­ci­a­tions ­between car­di­o­vas­cular fit­ness and phys­ical ­activity, and ­their rela­tion­ship to ­selected cor­o­nary ­heart dis­ease (CHD) ­risk fac­tors.
­Methods. ­This was a ­cross-sec­tional ­study for one ­week. All par­tic­i­pants ­were Jap­a­nese ­living in the ­City of ­Toyota, ­Japan. Two hun­dred and ­twenty-two ­healthy Jap­a­nese (104 men and 118 ­women), ­with ­ages ­between 20 and 62 ­years old. Car­di­o­vas­cular fit­ness (.VO2max) was meas­ured by a pro­gres­sive sub­max­imal ­bicycle ergom­etry ­test. Phys­ical ­activity was esti­mated by an accel­e­rom­e­ters ­attached to the ­subject’s ­waist for one ­week. CHD ­risk fac­tors ­included ­blood pres­sure, ­fasting ­levels of ­blood ­lipids, and apo­lip­o­pro­tein con­cen­tra­tions.
­Results. Car­di­o­vas­cular fit­ness and phys­ical ­activity ­were pos­i­tively ­related (r=0.41 in men and 0.65 in ­women). For ­both gen­ders, ­Pearson coef­fi­cients as ­well as age-­adjusted par­tial cor­re­la­tions indi­cated ­that fit­ness was ­more ­closely ­linked to CHD ­risk fac­tors ­than ­activity was. ­Also, CHD ­risk fac­tors ­were ana­lyzed by ­three ­groups of fit­ness and ­activity ­levels in ­both gen­ders, ­which indi­cates ­that sub­jects who are phys­i­cally ­fitter and/or ­more ­active ­tend to ­have ­better CHD ­risk pro­files.
Con­clu­sions. As favor­able CHD ­risk pro­file was ­related to car­di­o­vas­cular fit­ness, but not to phys­ical ­activity in ­both gen­ders, it can be con­cluded ­that fit­ness may be a ­more impor­tant inde­pen­dent pre­dictor for CHD ­risk fac­tors ­than ­activity meas­ured by accel­e­rom­eter ­over one ­week.