Longitudinal Patterns of Cardiorespiratory Fitness Predict the Development of Hypertension Among Men and Women

Most of the existing literature has linked a baseline cardiorespiratory fitness or change between baseline and one follow-up measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness to hypertension. The purpose of the study is to assess the association between longitudinal patterns of cardiorespiratory fitness changes with time and incident hypertension in adult men and women.

Participants were aged 20 to 82 years, were free of hypertension during the first 3 examinations, and received at least 4 preventive medical examinations at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas, from 1971 to 2006. They were classified into 1 of 5 groups based on all of the measured cardiorespiratory fitness values (in metabolic equivalents) during maximal treadmill tests. Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Among 4932 participants (13% women), 1954 developed hypertension. After controlling for baseline potential confounders, follow-up duration, and number of follow-up visits, odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for hypertension were 1.00 for the decreasing group (referent), 0.64 (0.52-0.80) for the increasing group, 0.89 (0.70-1.12) for the bell-shape group, 0.78 (0.62-0.98) for the U-shape group, and 0.83 (0.69-1.00) for the inconsistent group. The general pattern of the association was consistent regardless of participants’ baseline cardiorespiratory fitness or body mass index levels.

An increasing pattern of cardiorespiratory fitness provides the lowest risk of hypertension in this middle-aged relatively healthy population. Identifying specific pattern(s) of cardiorespiratory fitness change may be important for determining associations with comorbidity, such as hypertension.