Physical fitness and all-cause mortality. A prospective study of healthy men and women.
We studied physical fitness and risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in 10,224 men and 3120 women who were given a preventive medical examination. Physical fitness was measured by a maximal treadmill exercise test. Average follow-up was slightly more than 8 years, for a total of 110,482 person-years of observation. There were 240 deaths in men and 43 deaths in women. Age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates declined across physical fitness quintiles from 64.0 per 10,000 person-years in the least-fit men to 18.6 per 10,000 person-years in the most-fit men (slope, -4.5). Corresponding values for women were 39.5 per 10,000 person-years to 8.5 per 10,000 person-years (slope, -5.5). These trends remained after statistical adjustment for age, smoking habit, cholesterol level, systolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose level, parental history of coronary heart disease, and follow-up interval. Lower mortality rates in higher fitness categories also were seen for cardiovascular disease and cancer of combined sites. Attributable risk estimates for all-cause mortality indicated that low physical fitness was an important risk factor in both men and women. Higher levels of physical fitness appear to delay all-cause mortality primarily due to lowered rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Blair
S N
SN
Institute for Aerobics Research, Dallas, Tex 75230.
Kohl
H W
HW
Paffenbarger
R S
RS
Clark
D G
DG
Cooper
K H
KH
Gibbons
L W
LW
D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology