Relationship between objectively measured physical activity and cardiovascular aging in the general population – The EVIDENT trial

Abstract Background Aging has been associated with an increase in arterial stiffness. We analyzed the relationship between regular physical activity and cardiovascular aging evaluated by the radial augmentation index (rAIx), ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI), pulse pressure (PP) and heart age in subjects without atherosclerotic disease. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed including 1365 subjects from the EVIDENT trial (mean age 54.9 ± 13.7 years; 60.3% women). As a measure of total volume of physical activity we used counts/minute recorded in an accelerometer (Actigraph GT3X) that participants wore for seven days, collecting data in 60-sec epochs, and respondents with ≥4 valid days were retained for the analysis. Arterial stiffness was evaluated using measures of rAIx, AASI, and central and peripheral PP on the B-pro device. rAIx was adjusted to 75 heart rate(rAIx75). Cardiovascular risk and heart age was estimated by the Framingham Risk Score. Results The median (IQR) of counts/min was 236.9 (176.3–307.8), rAIx75 90 (77–100), sleep PP 40 mmHg (33–47), central PP 39 mmHg (32–47) and heart age 57 years (45–73) and the mean ± SD of the ASSI was 0.44 ± 0.07. We found an inverse correlation between counts/minute and rAIx75 ( r = −0.086; p