Healthcare

Recently, investigators reported that exercise capacity is inversely associated with all-cause mortality in older men. The study results, just published in August 9, 2010 in Circulation.

According to the study author, most health benefits are evident at fitness levels of greater than 5 [metabolic equivalents] METs.
They say, now, those benefits are graded, so that the more exercise you do, the greater the survival benefit.

The lead of investigator, Dr Peter Kokkinos from Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, and colleagues, assessed the association between exercise capacity and all-cause mortality in 5314 males aged 65 to 92 years old who completed exercise testing at Veterans Affairs hospitals between 1986 and 2008.
Individuals were tested on a treadmill, and peak exercise workload was estimated in METs, allowing researchers to gauge exercise capacity on the basis of exercise time.

From the study result, 2337 individuals died after 8 years follow-up.
The researchers found that among those who died, the METs was 5.3 at baseline exercise capacity, and 6.3 METs for those who survived.
According to the findings, there was a statistically significant 12% reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality from increasing of each MET in exercise capacity.
In term of the graded survival benefit, compared with the fittest individuals (those able to achieve a MET level >9.0 that had 61% lower mortality risk), those able to achieve a MET level >5.0 had a 38% lower risk of death.

Dr. Kokkinos also noted that compared with the younger patients, there were no differences in the effect of exercise capacity on mortality in older patients (such as those older than 70 years old).

In addition, for last one analysis, the group also attempted to show that the higher mortality rates in low-fitness categories were not influenced by preexisting disease.
To do so, they excluded patients who died within two years, those unable to achieve 85% of their peak maximal heart rate, and those in the lowest fitness categories who also had a very low body-mass index. Very skinny patients, as well as those unable to increase their heart rate, might have some sort of underlying disease, such as previous stroke or the possibility of cancer in skinny older adults, but even when these were excluded, the results of the study did not change.

Dr. Kokkinos said the results are of clinical importance given the aging of the US population, stressing that such fitness levels, >5 METs, can be achieved with 20 to 40 minutes of brisk daily exercise.
He noted that he has one patient, a 90-year-old man, who returns for follow-up who has an exercise capacity of 12 METs, all garnered through daily walking.