Physical Fitness and Hypertension in a Population at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease: The Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project

Abstract

BackgroundIncreased physical fitness is protective against cardiovascular disease. We hypothesized that increased fitness would be inversely associated with hypertension.Methods and ResultsWe examined the association of fitness with prevalent and incident hypertension in 57 284 participants from The Henry Ford ExercIse Testing (FIT) Project (1991–2009). Fitness was measured during a clinician‐referred treadmill stress test. Incident hypertension was defined as a new diagnosis of hypertension on 3 separate consecutive encounters derived from electronic medical records or administrative claims files. Analyses were performed with logistic regression or Cox proportional hazards models and were adjusted for hypertension risk factors. The mean age overall was 53 years, with 49% women and 29% black. Mean peak metabolic equivalents (METs) achieved was 9.2 (SD, 3.0). Fitness was inversely associated with prevalent hypertension even after adjustment (≥12 METs versus <6 METs; OR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.67, 0.80). During a median follow‐up period of 4.4 years (interquartile range: 2.2 to 7.7 years), there were 8053 new cases of hypertension (36.4% of 22 109 participants without baseline hypertension). The unadjusted 5‐year cumulative incidences across categories of METs (<6, 6 to 9, 10 to 11, and ≥12) were 49%, 41%, 30%, and 21%. After adjustment, participants achieving ≥12 METs had a 20% lower risk of incident hypertension compared to participants achieving <6 METs (HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.89). This relationship was preserved across strata of age, sex, race, obesity, resting blood pressure, and diabetes.ConclusionsHigher fitness is associated with a lower probability of prevalent and incident hypertension independent of baseline risk factors.

Importance of Assessing Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Clinical Practice: A Case for Fitness as a Clinical Vital Sign: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

“…Comparable findings have been reported in ongoing follow-up studies from cohorts including the Veterans Exercise Testing Study, [17][18][19]22 the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS), 2,5,13,20,51 and the Henry Ford Exercise Testing Project. [52][53][54] Importantly, the overall discriminative ability of CRF in these studies is comparable to that normally obtained in widely used risk models, such as the Framingham risk score and European SCORE (Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation) algorithm. 55,56 For example, Laukkanen et al 57 reported that a 1-MET increment in CRF and a 1% increment in European risk score were associated with 16% and 15% changes, respectively, in risk for all-cause mortality.…”

Conducta no saludable asociada con el desarrollo de presión arterial elevada en adolescentes

“…Si se analiza de manera separada los factores que formaron parte del patrón de conductas no saludables, en estudios previos se ha observado que el consumo de alcohol 17 y la baja actividad física 8,18 se asocian con aumento en la presión arterial. Con respecto al consumo de alcohol, se muestra que en los hombres éste puede ser mayor que en las mujeres 19 la administración aguda de nicotina a humanos o animales, aparentemente, tienen un efecto en las mediciones de norepinefrina (o noradrenalina), proponiéndose la hipótesis de que esta droga produce efectos psicológicos por la alteración del sistema de señalización noradrenérgico.…”

“…El consumo de drogas ilegales ha incrementado su prevalencia en un 114,3% del 2002 (0,7%) al 2011 (1,5%) 7 . Por otro lado, la actividad física es un factor que se ha asociado como protector, con relación a la presión arterial elevada, en donde individuos, adultos o adolescentes, con mayor actividad física tienen menor riesgo de trastornos en la presión arterial 8 . En México, el 42,2% de los escolares realiza menos de 4 horas de actividad física a la semana 9 .…”

Description of physical fitness, blood glucose, and cholesterol levels of the middle age operational workers in transportation company

“…[2,3] The level of PF was associated with degenerative diseases such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cognitive impairment. [4,5] The elderly aged population requires special attention with respect to health and social issues. The health of the elderly proceeds on a continuum that begins with development symptoms associated with daily activity changes, musculoskeletal degenerative, cognitive impairment, continues to disease onset, functional loss and disability, and ultimately, terminal status and death.…”