Sedentary behavior, a large waist circumference, and advanced age are all linked to poor physical fitness in people aged 50 to 64. Major fitness disparities are revealed in a study with over 5,000 participants that investigated the correlations in depth.
Fitness is important not only for athletic performance but also for the stamina required for exercising and living an active lifestyle. Previous research has found a strong link between physical fitness and a variety of sicknesses and health outcomes, including a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
The current study, which was published in the scientific journal BMJ Open, included 5,308 people aged 50 to 64, with 51% of them being women. The article discusses how maximal oxygen uptake (also known as VO2 max), a common measure of fitness, differs between demographic groups.
The variables considered were sociodemographic (age, gender, education, and so on), lifestyle factors, perceived health, body measurements, disease prevalence, self-appraised physical activity, and sedentariness as measured with an accelerometer.
The results revealed groups at higher risk of low fitness. These were older and/or foreign-born people with low educational level, large waist size, poor self-perceived health, and a highly sedentary lifestyle, who undertook little high-intensity physical activity, and those who commuted passively by car or public transport.
Prof. Mats Börjesson
Highly uneven fitness distribution
Every participant completed a cycling fitness test, while wearing an accelerometer on an elastic band around the waist. The purpose was to collect a week’s measurements of the frequency, duration, and intensity level of individuals’ exertion, both on an everyday basis and during training sessions, if any.
The study’s first author is Mats Börjesson, Professor of Sports Physiology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
“The results revealed groups at higher risk of low fitness. These were older and/or foreign-born people with low educational level, large waist size, poor self-perceived health, and a highly sedentary lifestyle, who undertook little high-intensity physical activity, and those who commuted passively by car or public transport,” Börjesson says.
Among the group of men in the study, straitened personal finances and previous tobacco smoking were also linked to inferior fitness, for which the results overall show an uneven distribution in the population.
One important requirement for an ability to focus various types of input on boosting fitness in these groups, or take other measures to prevent ill health, is knowledge of which people have low fitness levels. Such knowledge partly existed before but was then usually derived from studies of a few participants or select groups, such as men only or people from a specific socioeconomic group.
Valuable for health care and research
More detailed knowledge of fitness disparities among groups provides essential information from a broader perspective. Elin Ekblom Bak is a research fellow in sport science at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH), and the corresponding author of the study.
“This is one of the first studies that has been able to explore the association between physical activity versus sedentary behavior, on the one hand, measured with an accelerometer, and fitness on the other. Sedentariness and high-intensity physical activity were found, independently from each other, to be strongly associated with a low and high fitness level respectively. Altogether, this study provides valuable knowledge for health care services, as well as for future research and public health efforts,” Ekblom Bak says.
