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Higher push-up capacity decreases risk for CVD events
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Patients with higher push-up capacity had a decreased risk for CVD events, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.
“Our findings provide evidence that push-up capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in almost any setting,” Justin Yang, MD, MPH, occupational medicine resident in the department of environmental health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a press release. “Surprisingly, push-up capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk than the results of submaximal treadmill tests.”
Researchers analyzed data from 1,562 men (mean age, 40 years; mean BMI 28.7 kg/m2) who were active career firefighters and had no job restrictions. Men underwent periodic medical surveillance between 2000 and 2010. Assessments were also performed between February 2000 and November 2007 including maximal or submaximal exercise tolerance tests and push-up capacity tests.
Other data that were assessed include anthropometric measures, complete physical examinations, laboratory results and clinical and occupational outcomes. Questionnaires were completed to collect information on alcohol consumption, smoking habits, family history of disease, marital status and educational level.
The main outcome of interest was incident CVD-related events, defined as an incident diagnosis of CAD or another major event such as sudden cardiac death and HF. Patients were followed up from enrollment until an outcome event or Dec 31, 2010, whichever came first.
There were 37 CVD-related outcomes occurred during 10 years of follow-up (n = 1,104; 8,601 person-years).
Patients with higher push-up capacity had significantly lower CVD incidence rate ratios vs. those with the lowest capacity. Those who completed more than 40 push-ups had a 96% reduction in incident CVD events vs. those who completed fewer than 10 push-ups (= 0.04; 95% CI, 0.01-0.36).
“Results from this study suggest that it is reasonable for clinicians to assess functional status during clinical evaluations by using basic questions regarding activity,” Yang and colleagues wrote. “Further research is warranted to determine the association of push-up capacity with CVD risk in the general population and the potential use of push-ups as a clinical assessment tool.” – by Darlene Dobkowski
Disclosures: Yang reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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