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Perceived fatiguability may be marker for CVD risk
Patients with perceived fatiguability had elevated CVD risk as measured by the Pooled Cohort Equation, researchers reported.
There was no correlation between perceived fatiguability and CVD risk as measured by the Framingham Risk Score.
The researchers analyzed 625 participants (mean age, 68 years; 57% women) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who had at least two clinic visits between 2007 and 2015 and were free from CVD at baseline.
All participants had sex-specific CVD risk prediction performed using the Pooled Cohort Equation and the Framingham Risk Score and perceived fatiguability assessed via the Borg rating of preserved exertion scale following a treadmill walk that lasted for 5 minutes. Mean follow-up was 4.5 years.
During the study period, a 5% higher score on the Pooled Cohort Equation was, after adjustment for medical history, demographics and behaviors, associated with elevated perceived fatiguability (beta = 0.13 rating of perceived exertion; P = .008), Yujia Qiao, MBBS, BM, who during the time of the study was a research assistant at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is now a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote.
The association was most pronounced in participants aged 70 years or older and in those with obesity, according to the researchers.
Among the individual components of CVD risk scores, the one most closely tied to perceived fatiguability was older age (beta = 0.48; P < .001), the researchers wrote. Other components closely tied to perceived fatiguability included female sex (beta = 0.11; P = .002) and hypertension (beta = 0.11; P = .003).
Qiao and colleagues found no link between perceived fatiguability and the Framingham Risk Score (P = .408).
“Our results show that higher baseline CVD risk is associated with higher perceived fatigability an average of 4.5 years later, and that among modifiable CVD risk factors, treated hypertension was most strongly associated with higher perceived fatigability,” Qiao and colleagues wrote. “Given the temporality, these findings illustrate the evolution of the association between CVD risk and perceived fatigability in a cohort of well-functioning older adults who are free of CVD events, and suggest that CVD risk, particularly hypertension, may be an important factor in the development and progression of fatigability in older adults.” – by Erik Swain
Disclosure: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.