>Next, the researchers examined how fitness was associated with the risk of dying in random accidents such as car accidents, drownings and homicides. They chose

>Next, the researchers examined how fitness was associated with the risk of dying in random accidents such as car accidents, drownings and homicides. They chose random accidents because they assumed that there ought to be no association between the men’s fitness in late adolescence and the risk of dying in random accidents. This is clearly and obviously false though. Even the assumption is kind of ridiculous. Of course a person with greater general fitness is going to, on average, suffer less severe consequences from a random accident. Including drowning is especially ridiculous, because that is a scenario where greater physical fitness directly contributes to your ability to survive such an accident. The results can just as well be interpreted in a way that the original thesis is correct, but greater physical fitness also helps protect your body against the consequences of random accidents.