Assess the physical condition of an individual is considered an effective method for predicting health states of an individual. However, current tools, such as treadmill testing, remain expensive and can be time consuming. Based on this observation, scientists from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (United States) attempted to identify an exercise capable of evaluating more simply, during a routine examination, the risk of cardiovascular disease.
They finally demonstrated that an active man capable of performing more than 40 push-ups presented a significantly lower risk of developing these pathologies within ten years than those unable to do more than 10. This test could thus constitute “a simple and free method to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease in almost any setting”Explain in a press release Justin Yang, first author of the study. Its results were published in the JAMA Network Open on February 15th.
The importance of physical condition
“Surprisingly, the ability to do push-ups was more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk than treadmill test scores”, continues the scientist. To reach this conclusion, his team analyzed the health data of 1,104 active male firefighters, with an average age of 39.6 years. Their ability to do push-ups and their maximum tolerance on the treadmill were measured at the start of the study. Then every year for ten years, the participants conducted physical exams and answered medical questionnaires.
During the ten-year study period, 37 cases of cardiovascular disease were reported. And all of them occurred in men who performed fewer than 40 push-ups on initial examination (except for one individual). In the end, the researchers calculated that participants who were able to do more than 40 push-ups had a 96% reduced risk of suffering from these pathologiescompared to those who cannot do more than 10.
However, the authors note, since the research was conducted on active, middle-aged men, the findings may not generalize to women, other-aged, or less athletic men. But they point out “the importance of physical fitness for health, and [expliquent] why professionals should assess physical condition during consultations »says Stefanos Kales, lead author of the study.
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