Cardiovascular Journal of Africa: Vol 30 No 3 (May/June 2019)

CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 30, No 3, May/June 2019

AFRICA

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Later analyses revealed that arterial stiffness

and longer

sitting time (TV viewing and PC use) in adulthood appeared to

be related to lower aerobic fitness and higher fat mass.

Conclusion

The main message from this longitudinal research is that

prevention of health-related problems in later life by the

promotion of more physical activity (including sport and

physical education) in normal daily life during adolescence

could potentially be a strong tool to reduce healthcare costs

by the prevention of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases,

osteoporosis and obesity.

We acknowledge the members of the AGAHLS research team that collected

the data over the 25 years and published the scientific articles. We are most

indebted to all the subjects, boys and girls, men and women who gave their

time and effort to share with us their physical and mental state of health and

gave insight on their daily lifestyle over the years. They were invaluable in

contributing to the success of the AGAHLS longitudinal research.

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Table 4. Regression coefficients (mean and 95% CI) of actual and

delta values of dietary intake (DI,

-scores) and physical activity

(PA,

-scores) with the sum of four skinfolds (S4S, cm) and

body mass index (BMI, kg/m

) of males and females over a

period of 23 years between age 13 and 36 years

Actual values

Change scores

95% CI

Physical activity

Men

S4S

–0.10 –0.19 –0.02 –0.06 –0.12 0.00

BMI

–0.18 –0.33 –0.03 –0.07 –0.17 0.03

Women

S4S

–0.04 –0.12

0.05 –0.06 –0.14 0.02

BMI

0.06 –0.07

0.19 –0.04 –0.14 0.07

Dietary intake

Men

S4S

–0.10 –0.18 –0.03 –0.05 –0.12 0.02

BMI

0.10 –0.04

0.24

0.06 –0.05 0.17

Women

S4S

–0.23 –0.33 –0.14

0.01 –0.09 0.10

BMI

–0.16 –0.30 –0.03

0.09 –0.03 0.21

S4S: sum of four skinfolds; BMI: body mass index.