DETERMINANTS OF PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE AT CYCLOERGOMETER IN HEALTHY MIDDLE-AGED MEN IN ITALY - THE ECCIS PROJECT

Objective. The purpose of this analysis is to relate the performance a t cycloergometer of healthy middle aged men, identified in a populatio n, with a number of personal characteristics to explain part of their physical fitness indicators. Setting and participants. A sample of 516 3 men aged 40-59, belonging to sedentary occupational groups in Floren ce and Rome, were screened by a complex diagnostic procedure (particip ation rate=66.3%). 3893 were judged ''healthy'' from the cardiovascula r point of view. Measures. A cycloergometric test and the measurement of some individual characteristics allowed to correlate indicators of performance at exercise (work load, test duration, work load/heart rat e, PWC150, and PWC150/kg) with body mass index, resting pulse rate, sy stolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure, HDL and non-HDL cholesterol , a score of physical exercise and cigarette consumption. Results. Uni variate and multivariate analysis showed significant relationship of e xercise performance indicators with age, resting pulse rate, blood pre ssure, cigarette consumption (inverse) and with physical exercise scor e (direct). These individuals characteristics could explain 14-15% of the variance of exercise performance indicators. Conclusions. The anal ysis could not establish how much the individual characteristics were causes or effects of individual physical fitness. A reasonable cause e ffect relationship can be argued for physical exercise score and likel y for cigarette smoking. Relatively large differences in performance i ndicators can be expected for people with largely different individual characteristics.