[Physical fitness of Danish men and women aged 50 to 80 years].
Maximal power in sustained work in originally randomly selected men and women, born in 1914, was studied five times between the ages of 50 and 80 years in a longitudinal design. Of the originally 514 men and 461 women in 1964 living in the Western suburbs of Copenhagen, 23 men and 18 women performed a bicycle test at age 50, 60, 70, 75 and 80. The mean annual decline in body mass adjusted maximal power in sustained work (W/kg) was 1.43% in the 18 men and 1.64% in the 23 women. Based on "cross-sectional" comparisons of all subjects tested at any age, the mean annual decline in men was 1.56%; in women the corresponding figure was 1.80%. When the results of the "longitudinal" and "cross-sectional" analyses were compared with each other, a rather similar picture of the age-related decline in maximal power was obtained, especially in women. In the longitudinal data only moderate (women) or zero (men) correlations were observed between the submaximal test results at the ages of 50 and 60 years and the maximal test results at higher ages. The physical work load at the age of 50 years had no significant correlation with maximal power at that age or thereafter. There were only minor changes in mean body height, body mass and BMI during the follow-up.
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Københavns Amts Center for Sygdomsforebyggelse, Amtssygehuset i Glostrup, medicinsk afdeling C.
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Hagerup
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Jürgensen
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KS
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003718:Denmark; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010809:Physical Fitness