Unique 45-year follow-up data suggests low fitness in adolescence increases risk of declining work ability and health for decades
The data of Laakso’s dissertation is based on a 45-year Physical Activity Follow-Up Study (LISE). The collection of LISE data began in 1976, when the physical fitness of approximately 3,000 school children was measured by fitness tests at school and engagement in physical activity was investigated with a questionnaire. The same test subjects have thereafter been followed throughout their adulthood up until their approaching retirement age. Data from follow-up measurements in 2001 and 2021 were used to investigate, for example, work ability and engagement in leisure-time physical activity as well as the rates of diabetes, coronary artery disease and hypertension. The latest follow-up measurement conducted by Laakso involved about a thousand original test subjects.
According to Laakso’s dissertation, low cardiorespiratoryfitness in adolescence is an independent, early risk factor for declining work ability, increased sickness absences as well as cardiometabolic disease in adulthood. The dissertation study showed that this association is independent of body mass and age in adolescence and physical activity in adulthood. According to the study, cardiorespiratory fitness plays a key role here. The association found for muscular fitness, speed and agility were not as strong.
“The favourable long-term effects of cardiorespiratory fitness are probably based on systemic effect of endurance training on body and possibly also on genetic factors,” says Laakso. “There are some indications that the same genetic background may regulate both aerobic capacity and the risk of cardiometabolic 徱.”
In his dissertation, Laakso also investigated the associations of leisure-time physical activity in adolescence, early middle age and late middle age. Restrictions on social contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic also made it possible to explore connections between previous exercise history and physical activity during the lockdowns.
The findings indicate that leisure-time physical activity in adolescence is associated with leisure-time physical activity when approaching retirement age. In addition, for men their physical activity earlier in life was associated with such activity during the pandemic restriction they experienced in late middle age. For men with low levels of previous physical activity, it declined further during the period of restrictions, whereas men with a high level of previous physical activity maintained that level during the pandemic. For women, no such association was detected.
Laakso, who has long work experience as a PE teacher, urges the removal of any obstacles to children’s and adolescents’ physical activity.
“It pays to invest in children’s and adolescents’ physical activity now. If investments are not made, we will have considerably larger costs to pay later in the form of declining work ability and a higher rate of noncommunicable 徱.”
Perttu Laakso, MSc, will defend hiss doctoral dissertation in Sport Pedagogy “Associations of physical activity and fitness at adolescence with future work ability and health outcomes: a 45-year cohort study” at the University on 13 December 2024. The event starts at noon in the Musica auditorium (M103) in Building M. The opponent is Docent, Senior Physician Kai Savonen (Kuopio Research Institute of Exercise Medicine), and the custos is Associate Professor Timo Jaakkola (Ģֱ). The language of the event is Finnish. The public defence can also be watched online:
The dissertation can be read from the JYX publication archives:
Further information:
Doctoral Researcher Perttu Laakso
perttu.t.t.laakso@jyu.fi
050 320 9797
