Fitness Cut-Off Points Identify Increased Cardiovascular Risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cardiorespiratory fitness level cutoffs can identify children and adolescents who are more likely to be at risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new systematic review and meta-analysis.

“Fitness levels below (a peak oxygen uptake of) 42 and 35 mL/kg/min for boys and girls, respectively, should raise a red flag,” Dr. Jonatan R. Ruiz of the University of Granada in Spain and colleagues write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, online September 26. “These cut points identify children and adolescents who may benefit from primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention programming.”

Cardiorespiratory fitness in childhood is associated with cardiovascular disease and myocardial infarction in adults, Dr. Ruiz and his team note.

“Although fitness is widely used in schools and children and adolescents programming, clinicians or other health agencies that evaluate present or future cardiovascular disease risk at these ages have not adopted these standards,” they state. International standards, similar to those used for body composition, should be developed to facilitate fitness testing, they add.

The researchers reviewed seven studies including more than 9,000 8- to 19-year-olds from 14 countries. The percentage at risk for heart disease ranged from 6% to 39% for boys and 6% to 86% for girls. Boys with fitness below 41.8 mL/kg/min were 5.7 times as likely to have increased cardiovascular disease risk. Girls with fitness below 34.6 mL/kg/min were 3.6 times as likely to be at risk.

The cut points translated to six stages on the shuttle run test for a 15-year-old boy and three stages for a 15-year-old girl, according to the researchers.

“The consistency of findings reported in the present study provide strong evidence to support the broader adoption of cardiorespiratory fitness standards for use in schools and sport programmes as well as in clinical settings as part of surveillance and/or screening systems to identify children and adolescents with cardiovascular disease risk who might benefit from intervention programmes,”they conclude.

Dr. Ruiz did not respond to an interview request by press time.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2dY2Be0

Br J Sports Med 2016.

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