Effect of Fitness and Overweight on Risk for Death

University of North Carolina: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Topics:
Cardiovascular Health | Nutrition & Physical Activity for Adults

Using data from an earlier study (Lipids Research Clinics Study 1972-1976) and from follow-up about 20 years later, researchers examined the effects of cardiorespiratory fitness and overweight on death from cardiovascular disease or from all causes among more than 5,000 men and women in the United States. Being either unfit (measured by a treadmill test) or overweight (measured as body mass index) or both increased the risk for death for all participants, adjusted for age, educational attainment, smoking status, alcohol use, and diet. Being fit weakened but did not reverse the increased risk for death associated with overweight. The same results were found when the data for the American men were assessed against those for a comparable sample of men in Russia.

 

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