Quantification of relationship between health status and physical fitness in middle-aged and elderly males and females.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to quantify the degree of the relationship between health status and physical fitness level in middle-aged and elderly people using multiple discriminant analysis.


METHODS
The participants were 3114 males and females aged 30 to 69 years. Ten physical fitness tests and medical checkups were performed. The participants were divided into 2 groups according to health status; the healthy group and the unhealthy group. Multiple discriminant analysis was applied to the multivariate data.


RESULTS
Correct discriminant probabilities of multiple discriminant functions to discriminate the healthy group and unhealthy group were 72.3% for males and 71.7% for females. For all age groups, a gender difference was not found (P>0.05). For aging, as a result of the test of proportion, it was found that the correct discriminant probabilities decreased with age for both genders (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that there is a relatively strong relationship between health status and the level of physical fitness in both males and females. These findings support daily physical activities and exercise to maintain or improve physical fitness could be useful for the health status of middle-aged and elderly people. From the result that the correct discriminant probability decreased with age, the changes in probability for males and females were calculated and described with correct discriminant probabilities by moving averages with 5 point smoothing.
Sato
T
T
Kasugai City Medical Center, Kasugai, Aichi, Japan. sato5735@yahoo.co.jp
Demura
S
S
Murase
T
T
Kobayashi
Y
Y
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity; D010809:Physical Fitness; D010865:Pilot Projects