{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T16:11:53Z","timestamp":1790611913054,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":62,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,12]],"date-time":"2021-01-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1610409600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome are major contributors to health care expenditure. Increased physical activity reduces disease risk. The study compared effects of walking up and down stairs at home with continuous, gym-based stair climbing on the disease risk factors of aerobic fitness, serum lipids, body composition, fasting blood glucose, and resting cardiovascular variables. Sedentary women (31.7 \u00b1 1.4 years) were randomly assigned to home-based (n = 26) or gym-based (n = 24) climbing for five days.week\u22121 over an eight-week period. Each ascent required a 32.8-m climb, with home-based climbing matching the vertical displacement in the gym. Participants progressed from two ascents.day\u22121 to five ascents.day\u22121 in weeks 7 and 8. Relative to controls, stair climbing improved aerobic fitness (V\u02d9O2max +1.63 mL.min\u22121.kg\u22121, 95% CI = 1.21\u20132.05), body composition (weight \u22120.99 kg, 95% CI = 1.38\u20130.60), and serum lipids (LDL cholesterol \u22120.20 mmol.L\u22121, 95% CI = 0.09\u20130.31; triglycerides \u22120.21 mmol.L\u22121, 95% CI = 0.15\u20130.27), with similar risk reductions for home and gym-based groups. Only the home-based protocol reduced fasting blood glucose. Discussion focuses on stair climbing bouts as time-efficient exercise and the potential benefits of a home-based intervention. Stair use at home offers a low-cost intervention for disease risk reduction to public health.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph18020603","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,12]],"date-time":"2021-01-12T14:28:53Z","timestamp":1610461733000},"page":"603","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":27,"title":["Home-Based Stair Climbing as an Intervention for Disease Risk in Adult Females; A Controlled Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5257-1134","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elpida","family":"Michael","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK"},{"name":"School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Nicosia, Nicosia 2417, Cyprus"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael J.","family":"White","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4921-7169","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Frank F.","family":"Eves","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(14)61682-2","article-title":"Global, regional, and national age\u2013sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990\u20132013: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013","volume":"385","author":"Abubakar","year":"2015","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Wilkins, E., Wilson, L., Wickramasinghe, K., Bhatnagar, P., Leal, J., Luengo-Fernandez, R., Burns, R., Rayner, M., and Townsend, N. 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