Paffenbarger Physical Activity Questionnaire as an additional tool in clinical assessment of patients with coronary artery disease treated with angioplasty

The association between frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity and the risk of cardiovascular disease has been investigated in several studies. Out of many methods used for assessment of physical activity, a questionnaire seems to be a simple and affordable method of assessing the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the number of clinical studies investigating the usefulness of physical activity questionnaires is limited. To analyse the usefulness of Paffenbarger Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) in assessment of the correlation between the magnitude of physical activity-related energy expenditure and physical capacity assessed with treadmill exercise test (ET), risk of early onset of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and selected haemodynamic parameters in patients with CAD. The study group consisted of 211 patients aged 34-79 years (mean 59) with CAD, with or without previous myocardial infarction (MI). All patients were surveyed using PPAQ at the time of PCI and then 6 months later together with ET and echocardiography. There was a significant correlation between the value of activity-related weekly energy expenditure assessed with the PPAQ and selected parameters of ET (duration: r = 0.2966, p < 0.0001; METs: r = 0.2221, p < 0.001; VO(2)max: r = 0.3075, p < 0.0001; resting HR: r = 0.1615, p < 0.01 and maximal HR: r = -0.1475, p < 0.01) and echocardiography (LVESD r = 0.2346, p < 0.0001). After the PCI procedure, there was a considerable increase in physical capacity (ET duration: 5.82 vs. 7.48 min, p < 0.0001; MET: 7.57 vs. 9.18, p < 0.0001; VO(2)max: 29.23 vs. 34.79 ml, p < 0.0001; HRmax: 123 vs. 132 beats/min, p < 0.0001) and LV function (EF% 51.64 vs. 52.45%, p < 0.01). There was an insignificant change in total physical activity-related energy expenditure of low intensity (< 4 MET), not exceeding 2000 kcal/week (from 3120.13 to 3139.18 kcal/week, p > 0.05). Thirty-seven patients with MACE had a trend towards a lower value of average weekly energy expenditure than the remaining 174 patients (2690.71 vs. 3206.06 kcal/week, NS). High values of correlation coefficients between the questionnaire results and some variables of ET and echocardiography examination make the PPAQ a useful tool in clinical studies.