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Cardiorespiratory fitness predicts stroke in both men and women
18 August 2008
MedWire News: Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is an independent determinant of stroke incidence in asymptomatic and disease-free men and women, according to the large prospective Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS).
"It is clear [from the data] that a CRF threshold of 7 to 8 maximal metabolic equivalents [MET] is associated with a substantially reduced rate of total stroke in both men and women," Stephen Hooker (University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA) and colleagues write in the journal Stroke.
Between 1970 and 2001, a total of 46,405 men and 15,282 women with no known history of myocardial infarction or stroke at baseline completed a maximal treadmill exercise test. The researchers estimated each participant's level of MET from the final treadmill speed and grade and then analyzed CRF by grouping participants according to quartiles of gender-specific MET distributions.
During an average follow-up of 18 years (range 1 to 34.4 years), 863 strokes (241 fatal and 647 nonfatal) were documented.
Inverse associations between CRF and age-adjusted fatal, nonfatal, and total stroke rates were observed for both men and women (analyzed separately).
For example, the age-adjusted rate of total stroke fell from 6.3 to 3.5 per 10,000 person-years among men in the lowest versus highest quartiles of CRF, respectively. The corresponding rates in women were 5.5 and 3.3 per 10,000 person-years.
When adjusted for major cardiovascular disease risk factors, the inverse significant association between CRF and each stroke outcome was still significant in men. In women, the relationships between CRF and nonfatal and total stroke (but not fatal stroke) remained significant.
Beyond the threshold of 7 to 8 METs, "no further decreases in total stroke rate were noted for either men or women," write the authors. This level of CRF is rated as low to moderate, and most people can attain this level by moderate and/or vigorous exercise for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week, they note.
