PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY, PHYSICAL-FITNESS, AND ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY IN WOMEN- DO WOMEN NEED TO BE ACTIVE

Physical inactivity is associated with higher mortality rates in most studies in men, but studies in women are more equivocal. The purpose o f this study was to evaluate the relationship of sedentary living habi ts to all-cause mortality in women. A group of 3,120 adult women compl eted a preventive medical examination, and were followed for approxima tely 8 years for mortality. There were 43 deaths and a total of 25,433 person-years observed during follow-up. Physical fitness was assessed at baseline by a maximal exercise test on a treadmill, and physical a ctivity was estimated by a self-administered questionnaire. Age-adjust ed all-cause mortality rates were significantly inversely associated w ith physical fitness. Death rates were 40, 16, and 7 per 10,000 person -years of follow-up across low, moderate, and high categories of physi cal fitness, respectively. However, death rates did not differ across low, moderate, and high categories of physical activity. These finding s are different than for men in the same study, where both physical ac tivity and physical fitness were inversely associated with mortality r isk. We attribute the lack of association between physical activity an d mortality in women to be due to inadequate assessment of activity, a nd that this also is the likely explanation for the difference in resu lts between women and men in published studies of physical activity an d mortality.