PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jonatan R Ruiz
AU  - Inge Huybrechts
AU  - Magdalena Cuenca-García
AU  - Enrique G Artero
AU  - Idoia Labayen
AU  - Aline Meirhaeghe
AU  - German Vicente-Rodriguez
AU  - Angela Polito
AU  - Yannis Manios
AU  - Marcela González-Gross
AU  - Ascensión Marcos
AU  - Kurt Widhalm
AU  - Denes Molnar
AU  - Anthony Kafatos
AU  - Michael Sjöström
AU  - Luis A Moreno
AU  - Manuel J Castillo
AU  - Francisco B Ortega
AU  - on behalf of the HELENA study group
TI  - Cardiorespiratory fitness and ideal cardiovascular health in European adolescents
AID  - 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-306750
DP  - 2015 May 15
TA  - Heart
PG  - 766--773
VI  - 101
IP  - 10
4099  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/101/10/766.short
4100  - http://heart.bmj.com/content/101/10/766.full
SO  - Heart2015 May 15; 101
AB  - Objective We studied in European adolescents (i) the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and ideal cardiovascular health as defined by the American Heart Association and (ii) whether there is a cardiorespiratory fitness threshold associated with a more favourable cardiovascular health profile. Methods Participants included 510 (n=259 girls) adolescents from 9 European countries. The 20 m shuttle run test was used to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness. Ideal cardiovascular health was defined as meeting ideal levels of the following components: four behaviours (smoking, body mass index, physical activity and diet) and three factors (total cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose). Results Higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with a higher number of ideal cardiovascular health components in both boys and girls (both p for trend ≤0.001). Levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were significantly higher in adolescents meeting at least four ideal components (13% higher in boys, p<0.001; 6% higher in girls, p=0.008). Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed a significant discriminating accuracy of cardiorespiratory fitness in identifying the presence of at least four ideal cardiovascular health components (43.8 mL/kg/min in boys and 34.6 mL/kg/min in girls, both p<0.001). Conclusions The results suggest a hypothetical cardiorespiratory fitness level associated with a healthier cardiovascular profile in adolescents. The fitness standards could be used in schools as part of surveillance and/or screening systems to identify youth with poor health behaviours who might benefit from intervention programmes.