Impact of physical activity on cardiovascular events in patients with chronic heart failure. A multicenter prospective cohort study.
BACKGROUND
We have previously demonstrated that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in chronic heart failure (CHF) is more than double compared with the general population in Japan. However, the impact of physical activity on cardiovascular events in CHF patients remains to be fully elucidated.


RESULTS
We performed a prospective, nationwide large-scale multicenter study of 9,178 patients with stage A/B/C/D CHF in Japan. We obtained the baseline physical activity data for 7,292 and yearly changes in physical activity data during a 3-year follow-up period for 4,353 patients. We divided the patients into high- and low-exercise groups by using the median value of physical activity in the stage A/B and C/D groups. In both groups, patients who exercised more were characterized by younger age and less advanced stage of CHF. Importantly, the baseline physical activity levels were significantly associated with all-cause death, heart failure (HF) hospitalization and other cardiovascular events (except acute myocardial infarction, stroke, HF hospitalization). Furthermore, the yearly change in physical activity level was also significantly associated with HF hospitalization and other cardiovascular events in both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The baseline level of physical activity and its yearly changes are significantly associated with all-cause death and major cardiovascular events in both stage A/B and C/D patients, suggesting that physical activity could be an important therapeutic target to improve the long-term prognosis of CHF patients.
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine.
Yutaka
Y
Miura
Yoshihiro
Y
Fukumoto
Toshiro
T
Miura
Kazunori
K
Shimada
Masanori
M
Asakura
Toshiaki
T
Kadokami
Shin-ichi
S
Ando
Satoshi
S
Miyata
Yasuhiko
Y
Sakata
Hiroyuki
H
Daida
Masunori
M
Matsuzaki
Satoshi
S
Yasuda
Masafumi
M
Kitakaze
Hiroaki
H
Shimokawa
D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D011446:Prospective Studies