ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to determine the relationship between health status and physical fitness, and the contribution of each element of physical fitness to the health status of middle-aged and elderly men and women. The subjects were 889 males and females aged 30 to 69 years. Physical fitness tests and medical check ups were performed. According to health status, the subjects were divided into two groups ; the healthy group (HG, n=348) and the unhealthy group (UG, n=207) . Multiple discriminant analysis was applied to the multivariate data. Correct discriminant probabilities of multiple discriminant functions to discriminate the HG and UG were 70.2% and 68.2% for men and women, respectively. These results suggested that there was a relatively strong relationship between health status and the level of physical fitness in both men and women. The contribution of each element of physical fitness to health status was evaluated by correlation coefficients between the discriminant score representing health status, and performance on each element of the physical fitness test and age. Age and muscle endurance contributed significantly to health status in both men and women. In addition, close relationship was seen between health status and elements of cardiorespiratory endurance, balance, and muscle strength in men, while change in physique correlated with health status in women. From these findings, it was concluded that exercise programs for health promotion in middle-aged and elderly people should be provided separately with consideration of the degree to which these specific elements contribute to health status.