Aerobic fitness should be considered a vital sign, just as body temperature, blood pressure, pulse and breathing rates are now, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

The statement points out that fitness can be a better indicator of someone’s risk for heart disease and early death than such standard risk factors as smoking, obesity and high blood pressure. The authors recommend that each of us should have our aerobic fitness assessed as part of medical examinations and, if our fitness is on the low side, we should be advised and helped to start exercising.

The authors also suggest that if your physician does not begin to determine your aerobic fitness in the near future, you should do so yourself, using any of several scientifically validated online tools.

Aerobic, or cardiorespiratory, fitness is a measure of how well your body can deliver oxygen to tissues. Because that process is pervasive and essential within our bodies, it is also a “reflection of overall physiological health and function, especially of the cardiovascular system,” according to the report.

Many past studies have found that relatively low aerobic fitness is linked with a significantly increased risk for heart disease and premature death and that being out of shape may, in fact, represent a greater risk for developing heart disease than if you have a poor cholesterol profile, Type 2 diabetes, a history of smoking or a high body mass index.