Abstract
Background: Physical activity (PA) and high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Sogn og Fjordane County has the reputation of being the most healthy county in Norway. The level of PA and/or CRF may partly explain this health status. However, only one study with regional objectively measured PA data and one study with regional data on CRF currently exist. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe levels of PA, CRF and CVD risk factors in an adult population in the county of Sogn og Fjordane. Methods: In total, 314 (♀:178 ♂:136) 40-42-year-olds and 308 (♀:175 ♂:133) 53-55-yearolds participated in this cross-sectional study. PA was measured objectively by accelerometry, while CRF was measured directly. Results: There were no sex differences in total PA level. For the 40-42-year-olds, women spent 6.0min/day [95% CI: –11.7 to –0.3] less participating in moderate PA compared to men. For the 53-55- year-olds, women were inactive for 36.0 min/day [95% CI: –55.2 to –16.8] less and they participated in light activity for 26.4 min/day [95% CI: 7.7 to 45.2] more than men. In total, 30.0% [95% CI: 24.8 to 35.2] of the 40-42-year-olds and 30.2% [95% CI: 25.0 to 35.4] of the 53-55-year-olds met the Norwegian recommendationsfor PA. CRF was 49.0 ml·kg–1·min–1 for men and 41.6 ml·kg–1·min–1 for women for the 40-42-year-olds. For 53-55-year-olds CRF was 41.2 ml·kg–1·min–1 for men and 33.9 ml·kg–1·min–1 for women. Conclusions: These results suggest that the level of PA and CRF are higher compared to other available data. This might explain the advantageous health status in Sogn og Fjordane.
Highlights
Physical activity (PA) and high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)
For the 53-55year-olds, women were inactive for 36.0 min/day [95% CI: –55.2 to –16.8] less and they participated in light activity for 26.4 min/day [95% CI: 7.7 to 45.2] more than men
For 53-55-year-olds CRF was 41.2 ml·kg–1·min–1 for men and 33.9 ml·kg–1·min–1 for women. These results suggest that the level of PA and CRF are higher compared to other available data
Summary
Physical activity (PA) and high cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) are associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to describe levels of PA, CRF and CVD risk factors in an adult population in the county of Sogn og Fjordane. Conclusions: These results suggest that the level of PA and CRF are higher compared to other available data This might explain the advantageous health status in Sogn og Fjordane. Self-reported instruments are widely used, but these have numerous limitations with respect to difficulties in ascertaining the frequency, duration and intensity of PA, capturing all domains of PA, social desirability bias, recall bias and reactivity [10,12,20] Due to these limitations, objective assessment instruments, such as accelerometers, have been introduced to quantify PA [10,21]. Similar findings are seen in Sweden and US were physical activity is measured both by self-report [24] and by accelerometry [22,23, 25] in large population samples
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