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Device-Measured Physical Activity and Heart Failure
Quick Takes
- Device-measured physical activity, especially moderate-intensity physical activity, was associated with a lower risk of heart failure.
- Furthermore, performing moderate-intensity physical activity beyond current recommendations was associated with further heart failure risk reduction.
- These data along with other available evidence suggest that promoting moderate-intensity physical activity in the population could substantially reduce the burden of heart failure.
Study Questions:
What is the dose-response relationship between device-measured physical activity (PA) and heart failure (HF) by intensity of PA?
Methods:
The investigators conducted a prospective cohort study of 94,739 UK Biobank participants who had device-measured PA in 2013–2015 and were free from myocardial infarction and HF. PA was measured with a wrist-worn accelerometer, and time spent on light-, moderate-, and vigorous-intensity PA was extracted. Incident HF was ascertained from linked hospital and death records. Cox proportional hazard models with cubic penalized splines were used to study the associations, which were adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Competing risk was handled with cause-specific hazard ratios.
Results:
The overall incidence of HF was 98.5 per 10,000 person-years over a median 6.1 years of follow-up. Compared with participants who undertook no moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA, those who performed 150–300 min/wk of moderate-intensity PA (hazard ratio [HR], 0.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34–0.41) and 75–150 min/wk of vigorous-intensity PA (HR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.25–0.46) were at lower HF risk. The association between vigorous-intensity PA and HF was reverse-J shaped with a potentially lower risk reduction above 150 min/wk.
Conclusions:
The authors reported that device-measured PA, especially moderate-intensity PA, was associated with a lower risk of HF.
Perspective:
The study reports that device-measured PA, especially moderate-intensity PA, was associated with a lower risk of HF. Furthermore, performing moderate-intensity PA beyond the current recommendation was associated with further HF risk reduction. These data along with other available evidence suggest that promoting moderate-intensity PA in the population could substantially reduce the burden of HF. Given a potentially J-shaped association between vigorous-intensity PA and HF, benefits of vigorous-intensity PA should be carefully examined before promotion of very high levels of vigorous-intensity PA in the general population.
Clinical Topics: Cardiovascular Care Team, Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Disease, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies, Prevention, Sports and Exercise Cardiology, Acute Heart Failure, Exercise
Keywords: Accelerometry, Exercise, Heart Failure, Healthy Lifestyle, Life Style, Myocardial Infarction, Primary Prevention, Risk Reduction Behavior, Sports
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