title: Protective role of resting heart rate on all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the protective role of lower resting heart rate (RHR) in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients (n=53,322) who received a baseline medical examination between January 1, 1974, and December 31, 2002, were recruited from the Cooper Clinic, Dallas, Texas. They completed a medical questionnaire and underwent clinical evaluation. Patients with CVD or cancer or who had less than 1 year of mortality follow-up were excluded from the study. Relative risks and 95% CIs for all-cause and CVD mortality across RHR categories were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Highest cardiorespiratory fitness with lower mortality was found in individuals with an RHR of less than 60 beats/min. Similarly, patients with a higher RHR (≥80 beats/min) were at greater risk for CVD and all-cause mortality compared with an RHR of less than 60 beats/min. This analysis was followed by stratification of the data by hypertension, where hypertensive individuals with high RHRs (≥80 beats/min) were found to be at greater risk for CVD and all-cause mortality compared with those with hypertension and lower RHRs (<60 beats/min). In addition, unfit individuals with high RHRs had the greatest risk of CVD and all-cause mortality. The unfit with low RHR group had a similar risk for CVD and all-cause mortality as the fit with high RHR group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lower cardiorespiratory fitness levels and higher RHRs are linked to greater CVD and all-cause mortality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
authors.forename: Arpit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Minton
authors.forename: Duck-chul
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sui
authors.forename: Raja
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fayad
authors.forename: Carl J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lavie
authors.forename: Steven N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Blair
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010809:Physical Fitness; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D013781:Texas / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: ACLS; Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study; BP; CHD; CRF; CV; CVD; HR; HTN; PA; RHR; blood pressure; cardiorespiratory fitness; cardiovascular; cardiovascular disease; coronary heart disease; hazard ratio; hypertension; physical activity; resting heart rate