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Comparative Study
. 2018 Jan 6;7(1):e007061.
doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.007061.

Impact of Aging on the Strength of Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Longitudinal Study Over 40 Years

Lars Lind  1 , Johan Sundström  2   3 , Johan Ärnlöv  2 , Erik Lampa  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Impact of Aging on the Strength of Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Longitudinal Study Over 40 Years

Lars Lind et al. J Am Heart Assoc. .

Abstract

Background: The knowledge of the impact of cardiovascular risk factors at different ages has mainly been based on different studies performed at different ages. This study aimed to investigate the change in impact of traditional cardiovascular risk factors over the aging process in subjects followed for 4 decades.

Methods and results: In the ULSAM (Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men) study, 2322 men originally investigated in 1970 to 1974 have been followed regarding cardiovascular diseases until the end of 2013. This cohort has been investigated physically at ages 50, 60, 70, 77, and 82 years regarding body mass index, low-density lipoprotein- and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, and smoking. These data were used to model the interactions between risk factors and age regarding incident myocardial infarction (n=540), ischemic stroke (n=343), or heart failure (n=397). Significant interactions were observed between age and the set of traditional risk factors regarding all 3 outcomes (P<0.05 for all). Generally, a decline in the rate ratios was seen with aging for most risk factors, being most pronounced for body mass index regarding myocardial infarction and for systolic blood pressure regarding ischemic stroke and heart failure. However, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol was significantly related to incident myocardial infarction, whereas both body mass index and fasting glucose were significantly related to incident heart failure also at a high age.

Conclusions: Using a longitudinal design in middle-aged men spanning 4 decades showed that the impact of traditional cardiovascular risk factors generally declined with aging. However, some of the risk factors remained significantly associated with incident cardiovascular disease also at old age.

Keywords: blood pressure; cardiovascular disease; lipids and cholesterol; obesity; risk factor.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
3D graphs illustrating the impact of BMI and age on the incident rate (log rate) of myocardial infarction (upper panel), and in a similar way LDL‐cholesterol (in the lower panel). The P values for the interaction term between those risk factors and age regarding myocardial infarction are given in the graphs. 3D indicates 3‐dimensional; BMI, body mass index; LDL, low‐density lipoprotein.
Figure 2
Figure 2
3D graph illustrating the impact of systolic blood pressure and age on the incident rate (log rate) of ischemic stroke. The P values for the interaction term between systolic blood pressure and age regarding ischemic stroke is given in the figure. 3D indicates 3‐dimensional.
Figure 3
Figure 3
3D graphs illustrating the impact of systolic blood pressure and age on the incident rate (log rate) of heart failure (upper panel), and in a similar way BMI (in the lower panel). The P values for the interaction term between those risk factors and age regarding myocardial infarction are given in the graphs. 3D indicates 3‐dimensional; BMI, body mass index.
Figure 4
Figure 4
2D graphs showing the relationships between (A) body mass index (BMI), (B) LDL and (C) HDL‐cholesterol, (D) systolic blood pressure (SBP), (E) fasting glucose and log incidence rate of myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF) and ischemic stroke at ages 50, 60, 70, 77 and 82 years. The grey areas represent the 95% confidence intervals. 2D indicates 2‐dimensional; HDL, high‐density lipoprotein; LDL, low‐density lipoprotein.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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