Cardiorespiratory fitness that results from activities such as running, walking and cycling has proved to decrease one’s risk of cardiovascular-related disease and death. However, most studies focus on cardiorespiratory fitness levels in midlife, typically in people ages 45 to 64.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham evaluated the impact of cardiorespiratory fitness levels in early adulthood, ages 18-30, and subsequent long-term health risks. Results published today in JAMA Network Open showed early-adulthood cardiorespiratory fitness and retention fitness through midlife was associated with a lower risk of nonfatal or fatal cardiovascular events.
“The importance of cardiorespiratory exercise in early adulthood is often discounted with many studies focusing on the midlife period,” said Kelley Pettee Gabriel, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health and lead author. “Our findings show that the level of cardiorespiratory fitness in early adulthood is related to long-term health.”
Researchers used data from the National Institutes of Health-funded Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, or CARDIA, study which includes more than 5,000 males and females ages 18-30 who self-identified as either Black or white. The study started in 1985-86, and participants underwent in-person examinations every two to five years. For this study, participants completed cardiorespiratory fitness evaluations three times, including when they were young adults and middle-aged. Information about deaths and cardiovascular events, like heart attacks, was collected every year. Findings showed for every one minute of higher early-adulthood cardiorespiratory fitness, there was a 27 percent lower risk in all-cause mortality in females and a 13 percent lower risk in males, as well as an 11 percent lower risk of cardiovascular events.