Open AccessPhysical fitness and amount of asthma and asthma‐like symptoms from childhood to adulthood
Author(s) -
Guldberg–Møller Jørgen,
Hancox Bob,
Mikkelsen Dennis,
Hansen Henrik Steen,
Rasmussen Finn
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the clinical respiratory journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.789
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1752-699X
pISSN - 1752-6981
DOI - 10.1111/crj.12145
Subject(s) - medicine , asthma , pediatrics , physical therapy
Abstract Objective The potential benefits of physical activity on the development of respiratory symptoms are not well known. The present study investigated the longitudinal association between physical fitness and the development of asthma‐like symptoms from childhood to adulthood in a longitudinal community‐based study. Methods Participants were assessed at ages 9, 15, 20 and 29 years. Asthma‐like symptoms and physical fitness was assessed at each age. Results Tracking for physical fitness was high from age 9 to 29 years. Using logistic regression, high physical fitness at age 9 predicted a lower prevalence of asthma‐like symptoms at ages 9, 20 and 29 years. Asthma at age 9 and female sex and smoking at any age were also independently associated with the presence of asthma‐like symptoms. Our findings suggest that the risk for the development of asthma is reduced by 3% and of asthma‐like symptoms reduced by 2% from early adolescence to young adulthood (ages 9–29 years) by increasing the maximal workload with 1 W/kg. Conclusion This finding provide further evidence of a possible beneficial effect of physical activity in childhood on the development of respiratory symptoms in adulthood and supports the notion that the lower levels of physical activity in recent decades may have contributed to an increase in the prevalence of asthma and asthma‐like symptoms.