Resting heart rate and cause-specific death in a 16.5-year cohort study of the Japanese general population.
BACKGROUND
Several prospective studies have reported resting heart rate (HR) to be a risk factor for certain cause-specific death, together with sex- or age-specific differences in the effects of HR on death. However, there have been few prospective data from non-Western populations.


METHODS
Cohort study, over 16.5 years to date of death or end of follow-up (November 15, 1998) involving 8800 men and women > or =30 years of age randomly selected throughout Japan, who participated in the National Survey on Circulatory Disorders in 1980. Resting HR was determined from 3 consecutive intervals between R waves on the 12-lead electrocardiogram.


RESULTS
For middle-aged men (30 to 59 years of age), in the highest quartile of HR, there was a significant positive association with cardiovascular (RR, 2.55; 95% CI, 1.22 to 5.31) and all-cause death (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.06 to 2.00). For middle-aged women, in the highest quartile, there was a significant positive association with noncancer, noncardiovascular (RR, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.04 to 5.59), and all-cause death (RR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.26 to 3.01). Resting HR also showed a significant positive association with cardiac events but not to stroke. These relations were not evident for elderly subjects (> or =60 years of age). Results were not affected when deaths within the first 5 years of follow-up were excluded, except for noncancer, noncardiovascular death.


CONCLUSIONS
High resting HR is an independent predictor of long-term death in the Japanese general population.
Okamura
Tomonori
T
Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu City, Shiga, Japan. tokamura@belle.shiga-med.ac.jp
Hayakawa
Takehito
T
Kadowaki
Takashi
T
Kita
Yoshikuni
Y
Okayama
Akira
A
Elliott
Paul
P
Ueshima
Hirotsugu
H
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D004066:Digestive System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011897:Random Allocation; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology