Assessment of Vital Age in Japanese Adult Men and its Validity.

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We have recently developed a useful equation for estimating vital age (VA) or the so-called biological age of Japanese men, which consists of 10 predictors based on the assessment of various physiological factors measured not only during a state of rest but also during exercise. In general, however, any equations developed in a certain population have the disadvantage of population-specificity. The population-specificity may be due to the multicollinearity of the independent variables, which causes errors when the equations are applied to groups with different multivariate structures of the independent variables. The original analysis provides evidence of an equation's validity , but the strongest evidence is obtained with cross-validation research. The purpose of this study was to determine the cross-validity of VA as a sensitive index of physical health and/or aging status from both the cross-sectional and longitudinal standpoints. Analyzes of the data indicated that there was no significant difference between chronological age (CA : 56.6(〕SY.+-.〔)7.9 yr) and VA (56.1(〕SY.+-.〔)9.9 yr) in the normal men (n=42), while the mean VA (65.1(〕SY.+-.〔)10.9 yr ; 48.7-86.2 yr) of male patients with coronary heart disease (n=22) was significantly lower than their CA (56.4(〕SY.+-.〔)8.9 yr ; 41-70 yr). Correlations between VA's and CA's were r=0.76 in apparently healthy men and preintervention r=0.62 in CHD patients. We reiterate that VA could be a valid index of physical health and/or aging status.