ABSTRACT
In adult populations, aerobic fitness has been shown to be strongly associated with allcause and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality[1] and with CHD risk status[2]. Furthermore, the association between aerobic fitness and CHD mortality appears to be independent of a host of potential confounding factors, including physical activity level and body fatness[3]. In children, however, the relationships between fitness and health status are less clear cut. Some authors maintain that any associations are primarily due to the influence of confounding variables, notably body fatness[4, 5, 6], while others[7] have shown strong relationships between fitness and CHD risk status of children, independent of body fatness. Furthermore, the relationship between habitual physical activity and aerobic fitness remains contentious, with some authors confirming such an association[8, 9, 10] and others questioning it[2, 11].
