Comparison Between Stair Climbing and One Mile Walking in Relation to Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Condition: Sedentary Lifestyle
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 1

Summary: 
      The worldwide epidemic of physical inactivity is rising significantly and the main cause is
      sedentary lifestyle. In this era of globalization and rapid advancement of technology, people
      are chasing after worldly matters, leading them to abandon the most important factor in their
      life and that's their body. Most people are leading a sedentary lifestyle as they indulge
      themselves in their never-ending work. There is a significant lack of awareness on the
      importance of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness to health as people are
      focusing more on factors such as smoking, cholesterol and hypertension. The purpose of this
      study is to evaluate the effectiveness of stair climbing (SC) and 1 mile walking (1MW) in
      relation to cardiorespiratory responses and fitness.
    

Detailed description: 
      The incidences of chronic diseases and cardiovascular diseases are escalating rapidly and
      fingers are being pointed to physical inactivity and poor cardiorespiratory fitness as one of
      the few main 'predictors of premature mortality. According to WHO (2015), 23% of adults above
      the age of 18 years old were insufficiently physically active in 2010, with men scoring 20%
      and women 27%. Comparing high income and low income countries, 26% of men and 35% of women of
      high income countries was said to be insufficiently physically active compared to 12% of men
      and 24% of women of low income countries. This may be due to the fact that people of high
      income countries are more engrossed in chasing after worldly matters at work and preferring a
      sedentary lifestyle at home after work. Globally, adolescents between the age of 11 to 17
      years old scored a high percentage of 81% of being insufficiently physically active and this
      may be because adolescents prefer to spend more time on internet, playing games on computers
      or watching dramas or movies. In the Physical Activity Statistics 2015 by the British Heart
      Foundation, it is reported that North West of England has the highest level of physical
      inactivity with 26% for men and 31% for female. It was also mentioned that household incomes
      play a role in the level of physical activity in England. In 2012, 29% men and 34% women from
      the lowest quintile of household income in England were physically inactive compared to 11%
      men and 18% women of the highest quintile of household income.[1] In Malaysia a research
      conducted on physical activity index among Malaysian youth and out of 1801 respondents, 23%
      men and 31.3% women were insufficiently physically active.[2] In another research on the
      Prevalence and Factors Associated with Physical Inactivity among Malaysian Adults, the
      overall prevalence of physical inactivity was 43.7%.[3] Similar to other researchers, results
      also show that women are more physically inactive at 9 465 (50.5%) out of 18 744 female
      respondents compared to men at 5367 (35.3%) out of 15205 male respondents. It is important to
      ensure that everyone participates in physical activities in effort to improve their health
      and indirectly reduce the risk of mortality. Hence, the researcher aims to compare the
      effects of stair climbing and one mile walking in relation to cardiorespiratory responses and
      fitness to find which one is better compared to other as these type of activates can be
      performed in any settings and does not require sophisticated equipments.
    

Intervention name(s): 1 mile walk using treadmill; Stair Climbing
Intervention type(s): Device; Device
Intervention description(s): Walk for 1 mile on treadmill (American Motion Fitness, 8800D) at self selected speed as fast as participant can without any inclination.; Climb 14 flights of stairs at self selected speed. No double step at a time and running allowed.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention