The relationship between functional fitness and coronary heart disease risk factors in older Japanese adults

In Japan, 2 approaches have been adopted to assess health and functional st atus in older adults. One is a battery of physical-performance tasks. The o ther is estimation of physical vitality using biomedical risk factors. prev ious research has examined strength and direction of the relationship betwe en functional fitness and performance on activities of dairy living. Vital- age tests have most often been used to assess risk for developing a variety of age-related diseases. The present study examined interrelationships amo ng functional fitness and vital-age scores in Japanese women (N = 129, mean age = 71.9). The functional fitness test battery consisted of arm curls, w alking around 2 cones, moving beans with chopsticks, and functional reach. The vital-age test battery consisted of 6 coronary heart disease risk facto rs (systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cho lesterol, triglycerides, abdominal girth, and hematocrit) and 5 physical-pe rformance variables (oxygen uptake and heart rate at lactate threshold, sid e-to-side stepping, 1-leg balance with eyes closed, and forced expiratory v olume).