The effect of measuring fitness of cardiovascular risk prediction

January 01, 0001

The effect of measuring fitness of cardiovascular risk prediction

The magnitude of the effect of cardiorespiratory fitness on cardiovascular risk is unclear. These US researchers measured fitness using the Balke protocol enrollees without cardiovascular disease (CVD, n= 66 371) Cox proportional hazards models provided estimates of CVD mortality risk using age, gender, blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, cholesterol, and smoking status with and without the addition of fitness.

The researchers found: "During a median follow-up period of 16 years, there were 1621 CVD deaths. The addition of fitness to the traditional risk factor model resulted in reclassification of 10.7% of the men, with significant net reclassification improvement at both 10 years (net reclassification improvement=0.121) and 25 years (net reclassification improvement=0.041). The integrated discrimination improvement was 0.010 at 10 years, and the relative integrated discrimination improvement was 29%. Similar findings were observed for women at 25 years."

The researchers concluded: "A single measurement of fitness significantly improves classification of both short-term (10-year) and long- term (25-year) risk for CVD mortality when added to traditional risk factors."

Including a measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness improves the accuracy of cardiovascular risk models

For the full abstract, click here.

Circulation 123(13):1377-1383, 5 April 2011
© 2011 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Classification of Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality. Sachin Gupta, Anand Rohatgi, Colby R. Ayers, et al. Correspondence to Jarett D. Berry: [email protected]

Category: K. Circulatory. Keywords: cardiorespiratory, fitness, cardiovascular risk, mortality, prediction, longitudinal study, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Paul Schaefer, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 27 May 2011

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.