Longitudinal change in coronary heart disease risk factors in older runners.
BACKGROUND
it is currently not clear how coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors change over time in chronic exercisers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the longitudinal change in CHD risk factors in chronically endurance-trained men and women, and to determine the exercise and nutritional factors associated with those respective changes.


RESULTS
ninety-one middle-aged runners (56 male, 35 female) were tested on two occasions approximately 10 years apart (aged 50.8 +/- 8.0 versus 60.0 +/- 7.9 years at respective visits). Body composition, VO2max, blood pressure (BP) and blood chemistries were measured, and the subjects' self-reported training and nutritional history. Data were analysed by factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate step-wise regression. Among the entire sample, training volume decreased (61.1 +/- 28.2 versus 44.7 +/- 24.6 km/week, P<0.05) but nutritional variables did not change. Body fat (16.9 +/- 5.3% for men versus 21.1 +/- 5.3% for women, P<0.05), blood lipids, blood glucose and systolic and diastolic BP all changed negatively over the study duration. These changes occurred similarly in both genders and irrespective of menstrual and hormone replacement status among the women. Lastly, the changes in CHD risk factors were not predicted by change in exercise or nutritional patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
despite the maintenance of significant volumes of exercise and the absence of changes in diet, most CHD risk factors demonstrated unfavourable changes over 10 years in chronic men and women runners. However, the absolute values for most CHD risk factors remained better than those reported for sedentary peers of comparable age.
Schroeder
Todd E
TE
Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. eschroed@usc.edu
Hawkins
Steven A
SA
Hyslop
Dan
D
Vallejo
Alberto F
AF
Jensky
Nicole E
NE
Wiswell
Robert A
RA
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*