OnMedica – News – Physical fitness among middle-aged people is linked to a risk of later COPD

Encouraging fitness at middle age could help delay development, progression and death by COPD

Good cardiorespiratory fitness in middle-aged people is badociated with a lower long-term risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suggests a Danish research * published online in the journal Thorax.

Previous studies have suggested that a high level of physical activity and / or physical activity during leisure time is badociated with a reduced risk of COPD and that physical inactivity can accelerate its progression . To deepen this research, the researchers studied the respiratory health of 4,730 healthy middle-aged men from the Copenhagen Male Study, recruited from 14 large workplaces in Copenhagen between 1970 and 1971. Their average of 39 age was 49 years old. COPD, asthma or symptoms of chronic bronchitis were excluded, and men were followed for a period of up to 46 years until January 2016.

All participants provided information on smoking, alcohol consumption, level of physical activity, level of education, occupation and medical history. Height, weight and resting blood pressure were measured and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRC) was calculated as low, normal or high, using a VO2 max test. National registries have been used to identify cases of COPD and COPD deaths.

Compared to a low CRF, the estimated risk of diagnosing COPD was 21% lower in men with normal CRF and 31% lower in men with high CRF. Similarly, compared with a low CRF, the estimated risk of death from COPD was 35% lower in men with normal CRF and 62% lower in men with high CRF. High CRF in middle-aged patients was also badociated with a 1.5 to 2-year delay in the diagnosis and death of COPD.

The results are largely unchanged after excluding people diagnosed with COPD or who died within the first 10 years of surveillance, suggesting that the results are resistant to scrutiny, according to the researchers.

Although the processes linking the CRF to the development and progression of COPD are unclear, researchers have hypothesized that inflammation, related to physical inactivity, could play a key role. However, they added that it was an observational study and as such, it was not possible to establish the cause and it was possible that participants with a high rate of CRF are more resistant to underlying COPD by delaying the diagnosis.

*Hansen GM, Marott JL, Holtermann A, et al. Mid-life cardiorespiratory fitness and long-term risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Thorax published online 17 June 2019. doi: 10.1136 / thoraxjnl-2018-212821