Cardio-Respiratory Fitness: A Case Study

1. What is the research question and how has it been justified in the introduction. (3 marks)
Research question:
This study focuses on whether the association of physical activity (PA) with mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events were influence by cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) and grip strength in group of population who were enrolled in UK Biobank.
The author?s state:
? There are protective associations between PA, CRF, and strength with mortality separately. Furthermore, the association for CRF and strength is stronger than for PA.
? One of the major ways to improve PA is to increase CRF and strength, so CRF and strength is a part of mediators of the association between mortality and PA.
? There are restricted evidences suggesting that the association between mortality and PA in high CRF is weaker than in

Discuss how the findings of this paper could potentially influence public health practice. (3 marks)
The results show the impact of PA on mortality and CVD is stronger in the lowest level of grip strength and possibly in lowest CRF. This could give us some clues to target the higher risk group of population when it comes to the health promotion program, which could maximize the potential public health gains in population-level intervention.
The authors had stated that physically inactive individuals could reduce risks of all-cause and CVD mortality when they increased their PA, especially in those who were at the lower fitness conditions. However, improving ?fitness profile? might not just generally increase PA. The association between them may need further randomised control study to explore.
Furthermore, the measurement of CRF is not easy in routine clinical practice, however, the grip strength assessment which doesn?t need much training is simple, cheap to administer and highly reproducible. It is possible to use grip strength as a screening tool in routine clinical practice to identify individuals who would benefit more from increasing