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
. 2015 May;70(5):545-53.
doi: 10.1093/gerona/glu085. Epub 2014 Jun 24.

Increased cardiovascular stiffness and impaired age-related functional status

Mousumi M Andersen  1 , Stephen B Kritchevsky  2 , Timothy M Morgan  3 , Don G Hire  3 , Sujethra Vasu  1 , Tina E Brinkley  4 , Dalane W Kitzman  1 , Craig A Hamilton  5 , Sandra Soots  1 , William G Hundley  6
Affiliations

Increased cardiovascular stiffness and impaired age-related functional status

Mousumi M Andersen et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2015 May.

Abstract

Our objective was to determine if increased cardiovascular (CV) stiffness is associated with disability in middle-aged and older adults at risk for congestive heart failure. CV stiffness (brachial pulse pressure/left ventricular stroke volume indexed to body surface area) and total disability (the summed assessment of activities of daily living, mobility, and instrumental activities of daily living) were measured in 445 individuals. A subset of 109 randomly selected individuals also underwent physical function testing. Total disability was associated with CV stiffness (p = .01), driven by an association with mobility (p = .005), but not activities of daily living (p = .13) or instrumental activities of daily living (p = .61). After accounting for age, these correlations remained significant for men (p = .04), but not for women. CV stiffness was also associated with increased 400-m walk time (p = .02). In middle-aged and elderly men at risk for congestive heart failure, CV stiffness is associated with decreased mobility and physical function, and increased overall disability.

Keywords: Cardiovascular stiffness; Congestive heart failure.; Disability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Pepper Assessment Tool for Disability (PAT-D) data by tertile of cardiovascular (CV) stiffness in all subjects, men, and women. (A) CV stiffness vs overall PAT-D score. A trend is seen in all subjects (p = .063), and a significant trend is seen in men (p = .006). (B) CV stiffness vs ADL score. No significant trends were identified. (C) CV stiffness vs mobility score. A significant trend between increasing CV stiffness and mobility score was seen in all subjects (p = .016) and in men (p = .0026), but not in women. (D) CV stiffness vs IADL. A significant trend was seen in men (p = .021), but not in women.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Branch LG, Jette AM. A prospective study of long-term care institutionalization among the aged. Am J Public Health. 1982;72:1373–1379. :10.2105/AJPH.72.12.1373 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Newman AB, Simonsick EM, Naydeck BL, et al. Association of long-distance corridor walk performance with mortality, cardiovascular disease, mobility limitation, and disability. J Am Med Assoc. 2006;295:2018–2026. :10.1001/jama.295.17.2018 - PubMed
    1. Katz S, Ford AB, Moskowitz RW, Jackson BA, Jaffe MW. Studies of illness in the aged. The index of ADL: a standardized measure of biological and psychosocial function. J Am Med Assoc. 1963;185:914–919. - PubMed
    1. Patel K, Sui X, Zhang Y, et al. Prevention of heart failure in older adults may require higher levels of physical activity than needed for other cardiovascular events. Int J Cardiol. 2013;168:1905–1909. 10.1016/j.ijcard.2012.12.053 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vaitkevicius PV, Fleg JL, Engel JH, et al. Effects of age and aerobic capacity on arterial stiffness in healthy adults. Circulation. 1993;88:1456–1462. :10.1161/ 01.CIR.88.4.1456 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources