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Physical Fitness Study Confirms Fears on Health of Many Americans

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Rob Stein

A large proportion of Americans are out of shape, with teenagers in particular surprisingly likely to be unfit, according to the first nationwide assessment of physical fitness.

Treadmill tests on a representative sample of more than 5,300 Americans 12 to 49 years old found poor cardiovascular fitness in about one out of every five, including about a third of teenagers and 14 percent of young adults. Based on the findings, researchers estimated that 7.5 million adolescents and at least 8.5 million adults are out of condition.

The findings for the first time confirm what public health authorities had feared: that the increasing tendency to be sedentary may be taking a toll on Americans' fitness, putting them at risk for a host of health problems.

Although many previous studies have found that Americans have been getting less and less exercise in recent years and are becoming increasingly overweight, the study marks the first time researchers have directly measured fitness nationwide.

"This is something that we thought was happening, and that we have been concerned about. But no one had ever documented before how poor fitness actually is across the population in the United States," said Mercedes Carnethon of Northwestern University, who led the study published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "What we found is pretty worrisome."

Physical fitness is one of the best ways to protect health, with people who are not fit facing increased risk for virtually every major health problem, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The study indicates that a significant proportion of U.S. teenagers and young adults may be destined for heart disease and other ailments unless they start exercising more.

"Individuals with poor fitness are at markedly higher risk of dying," Carnethon said. "We should be very concerned about this."

In fact, the researchers found that the people in the study who scored lowest on the fitness test were likely to already have the major risk factors for the nation's No. 1 killer, heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar levels and being overweight.

"That was one of the most striking findings," Carnethon said. "We were surprised how many people already have significant risk factors."

Most concerning, she said, was finding these risk factors in a significant proportion of teenagers who were out of shape.

Experts called the findings sobering, but not surprising, given societal trends that discourage exercise among children, such as the elimination of mandatory physical education classes in many schools and the increasing amount of time spent watching television, playing video games and on the Internet.

"Kids are spending a lot more time in sedentary pursuits than they did a generation ago," said Stephen Farrell of the Cooper Institute, a Dallas research center that focuses on physical activity. "If you drive around your neighborhood nowadays you really don't see kids outside playing. It seems they only play sports if it's part of an organized league. Kids really just need to go out and play more."

Based on data collected from 3,110 adolescents 12 to 19 years old, and 2,205 adults 20 to 49 years old, the researchers reported that those in the low-fitness category -- 13.9 percent of adults and 33.6 percent of adolescents -- totaled 19.2 percent overall.

Adolescent boys and girls were about equally unfit, while adult women were significantly more unfit than adult men -- 16.2 percent compared with 11.8 percent, the researchers found. Black people tended to be less fit than whites.

Source: Buffalo News

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