Association between physical activity and sub-types of cardiovascular disease death causes in a general population cohort

We examined associations between physical activity and seven major CVD death causes. The sample comprised 65,093 adults (aged 58  ± 12 years, 45.4% men) followed up over mean [SD] 9.4 ± 4.5 years, recruited from The Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Surveys. A CVD diagnosis was reported in 9.2% of the sample at baseline. Physical activity was self-reported. Outcomes were subtypes of CVD death; acut e myocardial infarction; chronic ischaemic heart disease; pulmonary heart disease; a composite of cardiac arrest, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death; heart failure; cerebrovascular; composite of aortic aneurysm and other peripheral vascular diseases. There were 3050 CVD deaths (30.8% of all death s). In Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for confounders, physical activity was associated with reduced relative risk of all CVD outcomes; compared with the lowest, the highest physical activity quintile was associated with reduced risk of acute myocardial infarction (Hazard ratio 0.66: 95% C I 0.50, 0.89), chronic ischaemic heart disease (0.49: 0.38, 0.64), pulmonary heart disease (0.48: 0.22, 1.07), arrhythmias (0.18: 0.04, 0.76); heart failure (0.35: 0.20, 0.63), cerebrovascular events (0.53: 0.38, 0.75); aneurysm and peripheral vascular diseases (0.54: 0.34, 0.93). Results were large ly consistent across participants with and without existing CVD at baseline. Physical activity was associated with reduced risk of seven major CVD death causes. Protec...
Source: European Journal of Epidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research