PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ruiz, Jonatan R
AU  - Huybrechts, Inge
AU  - Cuenca-García, Magdalena
AU  - Artero, Enrique G
AU  - Labayen, Idoia
AU  - Meirhaeghe, Aline
AU  - Vicente-Rodriguez, German
AU  - Polito, Angela
AU  - Manios, Yannis
AU  - González-Gross, Marcela
AU  - Marcos, Ascensión
AU  - Widhalm, Kurt
AU  - Molnar, Denes
AU  - Kafatos, Anthony
AU  - Sjöström, Michael
AU  - Moreno, Luis A
AU  - Castillo, Manuel J
AU  - Ortega, Francisco B
AU  - ,
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.