Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2013 Oct 3;168(3):1905-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2012.12.053. Epub 2013 Feb 4.

Prevention of heart failure in older adults may require higher levels of physical activity than needed for other cardiovascular events

Kanan Patel  1 , Xuemei Sui, Yan Zhang, Gregg C Fonarow, Inmaculada B Aban, Cynthia J Brown, Vera Bittner, Dalane W Kitzman, Richard M Allman, Maciej Banach, Wilbert S Aronow, Stefan D Anker, Steven N Blair, Ali Ahmed
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Prevention of heart failure in older adults may require higher levels of physical activity than needed for other cardiovascular events

Kanan Patel et al. Int J Cardiol. .

Abstract

Background: Little is known if the levels of physical activity required for the prevention of incident heart failure (HF) and other cardiovascular events vary in community-dwelling older adults.

Methods: We studied 5503 Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) participants, age ≥ 65 years, free of baseline HF. Weekly metabolic equivalent task-minutes (MET-minutes), estimated using baseline total leisure-time energy expenditure, were used to categorize participants into four physical activity groups: inactive (0 MET-minutes; n=489; reference), low (1-499; n=1458), medium (500-999; n=1086) and high (≥ 1000; n=2470).

Results: Participants had a mean (± SD) age of 73 (± 6) years, 58% were women, and 15% African American. During 13 years of follow-up, centrally-adjudicated incident HF occurred in 26%, 23%, 20%, and 19% of participants with no, low, medium and high physical activity, respectively (trend p<0.001). Compared with inactive older adults, age-sex-race-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident HF associated with low, medium and high physical activity were 0.87 (0.71-1.06; p=0.170), 0.68 (0.54-0.85; p=0.001) and 0.60 (0.49-0.74; p<0.001), respectively (trend p<0.001). Only high physical activity had significant independent association with lower risk of incident HF (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.64-0.97; p=0.026). All levels of physical activity had significant independent association with lower risk of incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke and cardiovascular mortality.

Conclusion: In community-dwelling older adults, high level of physical activity was associated with lower risk of incident HF, but all levels of physical activity were associated with lower risk of incident AMI, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality.

Keywords: Incident heart failure; MET-minutes; Older adults; Physical activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan-Meier plot displaying unadjusted association of physical activity levels by metabolic equivalent task-minutes (MET-minutes) per week categories and incident heart failure in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Hu G, Jousilahti P, Antikainen R, Katzmarzyk PT, Tuomilehto J. Joint effects of physical activity, body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio on the risk of heart failure. Circulation. 2010;121:237–244. - PubMed
    1. He J, Ogden LG, Bazzano LA, Vupputuri S, Loria C, Whelton PK. Risk factors for congestive heart failure in US men and women: NHANES I epidemiologic follow-up study. Arch Intern Med. 2001;161:996–1002. - PubMed
    1. Kenchaiah S, Sesso HD, Gaziano JM. Body mass index and vigorous physical activity and the risk of heart failure among men. Circulation. 2009;119:44–52. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Defilippi CR, de Lemos JA, Tkaczuk AT, et al. Physical Activity, Change in Biomarkers of Myocardial Stress and Injury, and Subsequent Heart Failure Risk in Older Adults. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2012 Dec 18;60(24):2539–2547. Epub 2012 Nov 14. - PMC - PubMed
    1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. 2008 http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines/chapter1.aspx.

Publication types