Cardiorespiratory fitness and stroke mortality in men

LEE, C. D., and S. N. BLAIR. Cardiorespiratory fitness and stroke mortality in men. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 592–595, 2002. Purpose We examined the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and stroke mortality in men. Methods This is a prospective cohort study. We followed 16,878 men, ages 40–87 yr, who had a complete medical evaluation including a maximal treadmill exercise test and self-reported health habits. There were 32 stroke deaths during an average of 10 yr of follow-up (167,961 man-yr). Results After adjustment for age and examination year, there was an inverse association between cardiorespiratory fitness and stroke mortality (P = 0.005 for trend). This association remained after further adjustment for cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and parental history of coronary heart disease (P = 0.02 for trend). High-fit men (most fit 40%) had 68% (95% CI: 0.12, 0.82) and moderate-fit men had 63% (95% CI: 0.17, 0.83) lower risk of stroke mortality when compared with low-fit men (least fit 20%), respectively. Conclusions Moderate and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with lower risk of stroke mortality in men in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal study population.