Abstract
Interest in the healthful effects of physical activity dates back to ancient times, but scientific study of the issue did not receive emphasis until the end of the 19th century. Early studies focused on physiology, and, in fact, three exercise physiologists (August Krogh, A.V. Hill, and Otto Meyerhof) received Nobel Prizes in the early 1920s for their research (Montoye, 1992). In the 1989 McCloy Lecture, Professor Park (1990) provided an excellent review of early scientific studies of exercise. Montoye extended these observations by including more recent reports on the relation of physical inactivity to health and disease.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bijnen, F.C., Mosterd, W. L., & Caspersen, C. J. (1992). Physical inctivity: A risk factor for coronary heart disease. A position statement for the World Health Organization, governments, heart foundations, societies of cardiology and other health professionals (pp. 2–6). Geneva, Switzerland: International Society for the World Health Organization.
Blackburn, H., & Jacobs, D.R. (1993). Physical activity and the risk of coronary heart disease. In J.P. Boustet (Ed.), Proceedings of the Vth World Congress on Cardiac Rehabilitation (pp. 403–418). Hampshire, UK: Intercept, Ltd.
Blair, S.N. (in press). Physical activity, fitness, and coronary heart disease. In C. Bouchard, R.J. Shephard, & T. Stephens (Eds.), Physical activity, fitness, and health. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Blair, S.N., Barlow, C.E., & Kohl, H.W. III. (1993). Physical activity, physical fitness, and risk of weight gain in women and men during a 6.5-year follow-up. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Blair, S.N., & Kohl, H.W. (1988). Physical activity or physical fitness: Which is more important for health? Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 20 (Supplement), S8.
Blair, S.N., Kohl, H.W., III, Barlow, C.E., & Gibbons, L.W. (1991). Physical fitness and all-cause mortality in hypertensive men. Annals of Medicine, 23, 307–312.
Blair, S.N., Kohl, H.W., Gordon, N.F., & Paffenbarger, R.S. (1992). How much physical activity is good for health? Annual Review of Public Health, 13, 99–12.
Blair, S.N., Kohl, H.W., III, Paffenbarger, R.S., Jr., Clark, D.G., Cooper, K.H., & Gibbons, L.W. (1989). Physical fitness and all-cause mortality: A prospective study of healthy men and women. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 262, 2395–2401.
Blair, S. N., Powell, K. E., Bazarre, T. L., Early, J. L., Epstein, L. H., Green, L. W., Harris, S. S., Haskell, W. L., King, A. C., Koplan, J., Marcus, B., Paffenbarger, Jr., R. S., & Yeager, K. K. Physical inactivity. Circulation, 88, 1402–1405.
Bouchard, C., Shephard, R.J., & Stephens, T. (Eds.). (in press). Phvsical activity, fitness, and health. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Bouchard, C., Shephard, R.J., Stephens, T., Sutton, J., & McPherson, B. (Eds.). (1990). Exercise, fitness, and health: A consensus of current knowledge. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Ekelund, L.-G., Haskell, W.L., Johnson, J.L., Whaley, F.S., Criqui, M.H., & Sheps, D.S. (1988). Physical fitness as a predictor of cardiovascular mortality in asymptomatic North American men. The Lipid Research Clinics Mortality Follow-up Study. The New England Journal of Medicine, 319, 1379–1384.
Fletcher, G.F., Blair, S.N., Blumenthal, J., Caspersen, C., Chaitman, B., Epstein, S., Falls, H., Sivarajan Froelicher, E.S., Froelicher, VF., & Pina, I.L. (1992). Statement on exercise: Benefits and recommendations for physical activity programs for all Americans. Circulation, 86, 340–344.
Hahn, R.A., Teutsch, S.M., Rothenberg, R.B., & Marks, J.S. (1990). Excess deaths from nine chronic diseases in the United States, 1986. Journal of the American Medical Association, 264, 2654–2659.
Haskell, W. L., Leon, A. S., Caspersen, C. J., Froehlicher, V. H., Hagberg, J. M., Harlan, W., Holloszy, J. O., Regensteiner, J. G., Thompson, P. D., Washburn, R. A., & Wilson, P. W. (1992). Cardiovascular benefits and assessment of physical activity and physical fitness in adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 24 (Suppl. 6), S221–S236.
Hein, H.O., Suadicani, P., & Gyntelberg, F. (1992). Physical fitness or physical activity as a predictor of ischaemic heart disease? A 17-year follow-up in the Copenhagen Male Study. Journal of Internal Medicine, 232, 471–479.
King, A.C., Blair, S. N., Bild, D. E., Dishman, R. K., Dubbert, P. M., Marcus, B. H., Oldridge, N. B., Paffenbarger, Jr., R. S., Powell, K. E., & Yeager, K. K. (1992). Determinants of physical activity and interventions in adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 24(Suppl. 6), S237–S248.
Lee, I-M., & Paffenbarger, R.S., Jr. (1992). Change in body weight and longevity. The Journal ofthe American Medical Association, 268, 2045–2049.
Montoye, H.J. (1992). The Raymond Pearl Memorial Lecture, 1991: Health, exercise, and athletics: A millennium of observation — a century of research. American Journal of Human Biology, 4, 69–82.
Morris, J.N., Clayton, D.G., Everitt, M.G., Semmence, A.M., & Burgess, E.H. (1990). Exercise in leisure-time: Coronary attack and death rates. British Heart Journal, 63, 325–334.
Paffenbarger, R.S., Jr., Hyde, R.T., Wing, A.L., & Hsieh, C-c. (1986). Physical activity, all-cause mortality, and longevity of college alumni. The New England Journal of Medicine, 314, 605–613.
Paffenbarger, R.S., Jr., Hyde, R.T., Wing, A.L., Lee, I-M., Jung, D.L., & Kampert, J.B. (1993). The association of changes in physical-activity level and other lifestyle characteristics with mortality among men. The New England Journal of Medicine, 328, 538–545.
Park, R.J. (1990). 1989 C.H. McCloy Research Lecture: Health, exercise, and the biomedical impulse, 1870–1914. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 61, 126–140.
Powell, K.E., & Blair, S.N. (in press). The public health burdens of sedentary living habits: theoretical but realistic estimates. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
Powell, KE., Thompson, P.D., Caspersen, C.J., & Kendrick, J.S. (1987). Physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease. Annual Review of Public Health, 8, 253–287.
Shaper, A.G., & Wannamethee, G. (1991). Physical activity and ischaemic heart disease in middle-aged British men. British Heart Journal, 66, 384–394.
Sobolski, J., Kornitzer, M., De Backer, G., Dramaix, M., Abramowicz, M., Degre, S., & Denolin, H. (1987). Protection against ischemic heart disease in the Belgian Physical Fitness Study: Physical fitness rather than physical activity? American Journal of Epidemiology, 125, 601–610.
U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American College of Sports Medicine. (1993). Workshop on physical activity and public health: Summary statement. Atlanta, Georgia.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. (1991). Healthy People 2000: National health promotion and disease prevention objectives (DHHS publication no. 91–50212). Washington DC: Author.
Wannamethee, G., & Shaper, A.G. (1992). Physical activity and stroke in British middle aged men. British Medical Journal, 304, 597–601.
Williamson, D.F., Madans, J., Anda, R.F., Kleinman, J.C., Kahn, H.S., & Byers, T. (1993). Recreational physical activity and ten-year weight change in a US national cohort. International Journal of Obesity, 17, 279–286.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Blair, S.N. (1996). Physical Activity, Physical Fitness, and Health. In: Rogozkin, V.A., Maughan, R. (eds) Current Research in Sports Sciences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2510-0_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-2510-0_34
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3255-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-2510-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive