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Poor cardio-respiratory fitness is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality, regardless of body mass index.
Don't just focus on your weight. Improve your cardio-respiratory fitness through regular aerobic exercise. This reduces your risk of death from heart disease and other causes, even if you are at a normal weight.
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Longitudinal research between 1970 and 1993 on a cohort of about 25 thousand American adult males suggests that poor cardio-respiratory fitness (measured by administering a maximal exercise test on a treadmill) is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardio-vascular disease (CVD) mortality in all body-mass groups (normal weight, pre-obese and obese) after adjustment for other mortality predictors (Wei et al., 1999).
Why this rating
Based on longitudinal research on a large cohort of American adult males.
Source
The Obesity Epidemic: Analysis of Past and Projected Future Trends in Selected OECD Countries
Franco Sassi et al. · OECD health working papers · 2009
DOI 10.1787/225215402672
cross_sectional · n=3940490Cited 346×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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