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Cardiorespiratory fitness in aging men and women: the DR's EXTRA study
Author(s) -
Hakola L.,
Komulainen P.,
Hassinen M.,
Savonen K.,
Litmanen H.,
Lakka T. A.,
Rauramaa R.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of medicine and science in sports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.575
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1600-0838
pISSN - 0905-7188
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01127.x
Subject(s) - cardiorespiratory fitness , vo2 max , medicine , metabolic equivalent , workload , physical therapy , population , physical fitness , bicycle ergometer , heart rate , demography , physical activity , cardiology , blood pressure , environmental health , sociology , computer science , operating system
The aim of the study was to describe the levels and to create reference values of cardiorespiratory fitness, expressed as maximal oxygen consumption (VO 2max ), maximal metabolic equivalents (METs) and maximal workload in aging men and women. We measured VO 2max directly by a breath‐by‐breath method during a maximal exercise stress test on a bicycle ergometer with a linear workload increase of 20 W/min in a representative population sample of 672 men and 677 women aged 57–78 years. We presented the age and sex‐specific categories of cardiorespiratory fitness (very low, low, medium, high and very high) based on variable distribution and non‐linear regression models of VO 2max , maximal METs and maximal workload. The linear age‐related decrement of VO 2max was −0.047 L/min/year (−2.3%) and −0.404 mL/kg/min/year (−1.6%) in men and −0.027 L/min/year (−1.9%) and −0.328 mL/kg/min/year (−1.6%) in women. After exclusion of diseased individuals, the rate of VO 2max decrement remained similar. The number of chronic diseases (0, 1, 2 or ≥3) was inversely associated with VO 2max in men ( P <0.001) and women ( P <0.001). The present study provides clinically useful reference values of cardiorespiratory fitness for primary and secondary prevention purposes in aging people.