Childhood physical fitness is a poor predictor of adolescent cardiovascular health

What is it about?

Physical fitness has been considered a powerful marker of health. However, in our 8-year follow-up study physical fitness had a weak if any association with arterial structure and arterial stiffness, a common markers of cardiovascular health. In addition, body fat percentage largely explained the associations of physical fitness with arterial health. Therefore, preventing overweight and obesity rather than improving fitness should be addressed in public health strategies to prevent cardiovascular diseases in general paediatric populations. Key Points: 1. Better sit-up performance was associated with lower arterial health, but the association was largely explained by body fat percentage. 2. Lower body muscular strength, handgrip strength, or motor fitness was not associated with arterial health. 3. Measures other than cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness, or motor fitness, such as adiposity, should be used to screen children and adolescents at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.

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Photo by Yayan Sopian on Unsplash

Photo by Yayan Sopian on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality globally. While the relationship between physical fitness and arterial structure and stiffness are reasonably well-studied in adults, these associations in children and adolescents remain less understood. Here, we used a longitudinal data and showed that physical fitness is not good predictor of cardiovascular disease risk in youth.

Perspectives