The researchers observed that the mean maximal oxygen uptake in women and men were 35 and 44 mL/kg/min, respectively. The material suggested a ~7% decline in maximal oxygen uptake with every 10 year raise in age in both genders. Women and men below the gender-specific mean were 4 to 8 times more likely to have a combination of more than three conventional cardiovascular risk factors (i.e. the metabolic syndrome) compared to the most fit quartile of subjects. The researchers also observed that maximal oxygen uptake may represent a continuum from health to disease, and that a general 5 mL/kg/min lower maximal oxygen consumption was associated with ~56% higher odds of having the metabolic syndrome.

 

In conclusion, the study indicates that cardiovascular fitness may be even more important for cardiac health than previously thought. The study-material is the historically largest and most robust of it's kind with directly measured maximal oxygen uptake and more than 4,600 subjects, and constitutes a reference-material to future studies. From the same data-material the researchers also developed a non-exercise model that allows anyone to easily estimate their maximal oxygen uptake. The model may prove to be an important tool for health authorities, doctors and others to estimate the cardiovascular health status, so to say, and possibly prevent future illness.

 

Mean maximal oxygen uptake across the age-groups
Age-group	Women		Men
20-29 years	43	mL·kg-1·min-1	54	mL·kg-1·min-1
30-39 years	40	mL·kg-1·min-1	49	mL·kg-1·min-1
40-49 years	38	mL·kg-1·min-1	47	mL·kg-1·min-1
50-59 years	34	mL·kg-1·min-1	42	mL·kg-1·min-1
60-69 years	31	mL·kg-1·min-1	39	mL·kg-1·min-1
70 years and more	27	mL·kg-1·min-1	34	mL·kg-1·min-1

Active middle-aged people can have the same maximal oxygen uptake as 20-29 year olds
	Age-group	Inactive		Highly active
Men	20-29 years	47	mL·kg-1·min-1	60	mL·kg-1·min-1
	50-59 years	38	mL·kg-1·min-1	47	mL·kg-1·min-1
Women	20-29 years	37	mL·kg-1·min-1	49	mL·kg-1·min-1
	50-59 years	31	mL·kg-1·min-1	37	mL·kg-1·min-1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21502897