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To the Editor: Dr Sui and colleagues¹ studied cardiorespiratory fitness and adiposity as mortality predictors in older adults. I have several questions about this study.

First, other studies have found that physical activity, even with some measurement errors, is associated with cardiovascular fitness with a beneficial association with cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.^2-4 However, in this study, the rates of physical inactivity were virtually identical in survivors and decedents (25%). It is not clear why there would be an association of mortality with low fitness but not with physical inactivity.

Second, rather than enrolling participants within a narrow period of time as the baseline, the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study is a continuous observational study of patients examined at the Cooper Clinic from 1979 to 2003. Therefore, a simple comparison of baseline values in some variables between decedents and survivors may be misleading. For example, decedents and survivors had similar body . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Ming Wei, MD
mingweiebct@yahoo.com
Holy Hospital
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

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