Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality Risk Across the Spectra of Age, Race, and Sex

Researchers studied about 750,000 adults aged 30 to 95 who completed treadmill exercise tests. The tests estimated cardiorespiratory fitness, meaning how well the heart and lungs supply oxygen during exercise. The researchers then compared fitness levels with deaths during follow-up. People with higher fitness had a lower risk of dying, including from heart disease and other causes. This pattern was seen across different ages, races, and sexes.

What this means for you: The study supports making regular physical activity part of a healthy lifestyle. It was an observational study, so it cannot prove that fitness alone caused people to live longer, and the participants who took treadmill tests may have been healthier than average.