In the 1980s medical research on exercise
and cardiovascular disease risk factors proliferated
in scientific journals. For example,
Blair and associates39 compared the physical
fitness of 10,244 men and 3,120 women
at two times, about 8 years apart. Men who
remained at the lowest fitness level at both
examinations had an age-adjusted cardiovascular
disease death rate of 24.6 compared
with 3.1 for those who moved to the highest
fitness level. Women had death rates of 7.4
for the lowest to 0.8 for the highest level
at 8 years. Dannenberg and colleagues40
conducted a cross-sectional study of 3,360
offspring of the Framingham study participants
and found that greater physical activity
was related to significantly increased highdensity
lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, lower
very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol,
lower heart rate, lower body mass index
(BMI), and fewer cigarettes smoked per
day in men and higher HDL cholesterol and
lower heart rate in women. Bauman and
Owen,41 in an Australian risk factor prevalence
survey of 6,814 adults, found signifi-
cant relationships between physical activity
levels and cholesterol levels, blood pressure,
and BMI.