Determinants of physical performance at cycloergometer in healthy middle aged men in Italy. The ECCIS project. Epidemiology and Clinics of Silent Ischemic Heart Disease.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this analysis is to relate the performance at cycloergometer of healthy middle aged men, identified in a population, with a number of personal characteristics to explain part of their physical fitness indicators.


METHODS
A sample of 5,163 men aged 40-59, belonging to sedentary occupational groups in Florence and Rome, were screened by a complex diagnostic procedure (participation rate = 66.3%). 3,893 were judged "healthy" from the cardiovascular point of view.


METHODS
A cycloergometric test and the measurement of some individual characteristics allowed to correlate indicators of performance at exercise (work load, test duration, work load/heart rate, PWC150 and PWC150/kg) with body mass index, resting pulse rate, systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure. HDL and non-HDL cholesterol, a score of physical exercise and cigarette consumption.


RESULTS
Univariate and multivariate analysis showed significant relationship of exercise performance indicators with age, resting pulse rate, blood pressure, cigarette consumption (inverse) and with physical exercise score (direct). These individual characteristics could explain 14-15% of the variance of exercise performance indicators.


CONCLUSIONS
The analysis could not establish how much the individual characteristics were causes or effects of individual physical fitness. A reasonable cause effect relationship can be argued for physical exercise score and likely for cigarette smoking. Relatively large differences in performance indicators can be expected for people with largely different individual characteristics.
Seccareccia
F
F
Laboratorio di Epidemiologia Biostatistica, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
Menotti
A
A
Fazzini
P F
PF
Prati
P L
PL
Antoniucci
D
D
Menghini
F
F
D000328:Adult; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005080:Exercise Test; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology; D009790:Occupations; D010809:Physical Fitness; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology