Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1999 Mar;69(3):373-80.
doi: 10.1093/ajcn/69.3.373.

Cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in men

C D Lee  1 , S N Blair, A S Jackson
Affiliations

Cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in men

C D Lee et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness and body fatness are both related to health, but their interrelation to all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality is unknown.

Objective: We examined the health benefits of leanness and the hazards of obesity while simultaneously considering cardiorespiratory fitness.

Design: This was an observational cohort study. We followed 21925 men, aged 30-83 y, who had a body-composition assessment and a maximal treadmill exercise test. There were 428 deaths (144 from CVD, 143 from cancer, and 141 from other causes) in an average of 8 y of follow-up (176742 man-years).

Results: After adjustment for age, examination year, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, and parental history of ischemic heart disease, unfit (low cardiorespiratory fitness as determined by maximal exercise testing), lean men had double the risk of all-cause mortality of fit, lean men (relative risk: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.16, 3.69; P = 0.01). Unfit, lean men also had a higher risk of all-cause and CVD mortality than did men who were fit and obese. We observed similar results for fat and fat-free mass in relation to mortality. Unfit men had a higher risk of all-cause and CVD mortality than did fit men in all fat and fat-free mass categories. Similarly, unfit men with low waist girths (<87 cm) had greater risk of all-cause mortality than did fit men with high waist girths (> or =99 cm).

Conclusions: The health benefits of leanness are limited to fit men, and being fit may reduce the hazards of obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

  NODES
Association 1
twitter 2