Cooper Wellness Strategies™ > CooperFit > Physicians

Fitness is a Vital Sign™ of Health

For more than 50 years, Cooper Clinic continues to demonstrate the value of fitness. Fitness is a vital sign™ of health, and CooperFit™ cardiovascular fitness test is an effective way to help physicians reliably and consistently measure their patients’ level of fitness.

Through the work of Cooper Clinic and research from the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study, higher levels of measured fitness are scientifically proven to correlate in tested populations with a significant reduction in mortality and morbidity and an improvement in quality of life. For example, our research shows being fit:

Decreased risk of dying from all causes*
Decreased risk of chronic disease such as heart disease and cancer*
Decreased risk of dementia* and later-life depression*
Decreased Medicare expenditure*

*Research from the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study

To receive a validated measurement of your patient’s fitness, simply order a proctored CooperFit test to be conducted at Cooper Clinic.

The Benefits of Prescribing CooperFit

Opportunity to advance the health and well-being of your patients
New vital sign test – accurate cardiovascular fitness score
Minimal physician time/involvement
Easy-to-understand cardiovascular exercise program recommendations
Turnkey implementation tool kit provided

What is the CooperFit cardiovascular fitness test?
Performed at Cooper Clinic in Dallas, the CooperFit test consists of the patient walking for one mile or running for 12 minutes on a treadmill while wearing a heart rate monitor. Proctored by a CooperFit professional, the patient is guided to walk or run as hard and fast as they can.

The patient’s performance result (predicted max VO2) places them into one of six categories of fitness (listed below) and a percentile ranking from 1% to 100%.

Fitness levels - Very Poor (0-19 percent) to Superior (95-100 percent)

Both results are specific to the patient’s gender and age in five-year segments and are based on the 326,000 collective treadmill stress test records from Cooper Clinic.

“Our method of fitness evaluation has been the backbone of our practice since 1970.”
– Tyler C. Cooper, MD, MPH, President and CEO, Cooper Aerobics

Beyond the Test
Once the patient completes the test, they receive a coaching session to review their fitness results and an exercise prescription for cardiovascular fitness improvement as needed (included with the test). For those who fall in the Very Poor or Poor categories, a retest is recommended at 12 weeks after participating in a Cooper developed and certified basic walking program.

Interested in providing CooperFit to your patients?

David Evans, FMFA
Vice President, Cooper Wellness Strategies
972.560.3263
Online Inquiry Form