Rationale and design of the cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in armed forces study in Eastern Taiwan.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in a cohort of large voluntary arm forces in Taiwan.


METHODS
The cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in armed forces (CHIEF) is a retrospective cohort consisting of more than 4000 professional military members aged 18-50 years in Eastern Taiwan. All participants received history taking, physical examination, chest radiography, 12-lead electrocardiography, blood tests for cell counts and fasting glucose, lipid profiles, uric acid, renal function and liver function in the Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital during 2014. In addition, participants were required to undergo two indoor resistant exercise tests including 2-min push-up and 2-min sit-up, both scored by infrared sensing, and one outdoor endurance 3000-m none weight-bearing running test, the main indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness in the Military Physical Training and Testing Center in Eastern Taiwan in 2014.


RESULTS
Hospitalization events for cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, rhabdomyolysis, severe infectious disease, acute psychiatric illness, diabetes, orthopedic surgery and mortality will be identified in the National Insurance Research Database for 10 years.


CONCLUSIONS
CHIEF will be among the largest Eastern Asian armed forces cohort, in which physical status was strictly evaluated to follow up the hospitalization events for severe illness.
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Gen-Min
GM
Lin
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Yi-Hwei
YH
Li
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Chung-Jen
CJ
Lee
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Jeng-Chuan
JC
Shiang
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Ko-Huan
KH
Lin
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Kai-Wen
KW
Chen
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Yu-Jung
YJ
Chen
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Ching-Fen
CF
Wu
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Been-Sheng
BS
Lin
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Yun-Shun
YS
Yu
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Felicia
F
Lin
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Fung-Ying
FY
Su
Gen-Min Lin, Yi-Hwei Li, Fung-Ying Su, Department of Public Health, Tzu-Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
Chih-Hung
CH
Wang
Cardiorespiratory fitness; Hospitalization; Voluntary armed forces