Associations of Hypertension Status with Physical Fitness Variables in Korean Women

Background: In Korea, hypertension has become more prevalent with the Westernization of Korean diets and lack of exer-cise. This study aimed at investigating the associations between physical fitness variables and hypertension status in Ko-rean women. Methods: The subjects were 9,216 women aged >20 years who visited a public health promotion center for physical fitness tests. Cardiovascular respiratory fitness was evaluated using VO2max, resting heart rate (RHR), double product (DP), and vital capacity and coordination-related physical fitness was measured using grip strength, number of sit-ups completed, sit-and-reach score, vertical jump height, number of side steps performed, and 1-leg standing with eyes open. Results: The prevalence rates of prehypertension and hypertension were 30.3% and 12.9% in this study, respectively. After adjusting for age, body mass index, drinking frequency, smoking intensity, and exercise intensity, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) were calculated, and no statistically significant association was found between hypertension and physical fitness as measured by grip strength (P = 0.056), number of sit-ups completed (P = 0.140), and vertical jump height (P = 0.121). However, significant associations were found between hypertension and VO2max (P < 0.001), RHR (P < 0.001), DP (P < 0.001), vital capacity (P < 0.001), sit-and-reach score (P = 0.012), the number of side steps performed (P = 0.001), and 1-leg standing with eyes open (P < 0.001). Conclusion: We found that all the cardiovascular respiratory fitness variables and half of the motor- and coordina-tion-related physical fitness variables were closely related with hypertension status.