Poor physical activity in the elderly as assessed by a visual analogue scale is associated with dyslipidemia

Self-efficacy regarding physical activity is superior to self-assessed activity level, in long-term prediction of cardiovascular events in middle-aged men

Background

Self-efficacy has been determined to be a strong predictor of who will engage in physical activity. We aimed to evaluate the associations between self-efficacy to perform physical activity, self-reported leisure-time physical activity and cardiovascular events in a population-based cohort of middle-aged Swedish men with no previous cardiovascular disease, or treatment with cardiovascular drugs.

Methods

Analyses are based on 377 men randomly selected and stratified for weight and insulin sensitivity from a population sample of 58-year-old men (n = 1728) and who had answered a question about their competence to perform exercise (as an assessment of physical self-efficacy). The Saltin-Grimby Physical Activity Level Scale was used to assess self-reported levels of leisure-time physical activity. Cardiovascular events were recorded during 13-years of follow-up.

Results

The group with poor self-efficacy to perform physical activity had a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular events compared with the group with good physical self-efficacy (32.1 % vs 17.1 %, p < 0.01). Multivariate analyses showed that poor physical self-efficacy was associated with an increased relative risk of 2.0 (95 % CI 1.2 to 3.0), of having a cardiovascular event during follow-up also after adjustments for co-variates such as waist to hip ratio, heart rate, fasting plasma glucose, serum triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, apoB/apoA-I ratio and leisure-time physical activity.

Conclusion

Self-efficacy to perform physical activity was strongly and independently associated with cardiovascular events and was superior to self-assessed physical activity in predicting cardiovascular events during 13-years of follow-up in a group of middle-aged men, without known CVD or treatment with cardiovascular drugs.

Coronary risk factors in patients underwent coronary artery bypass grafting

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) risk increases with increasing number of risk factors. This study was aimed to assess different coronary risk factors among Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) surgery patients. A total of 700 patients younger than 45 or older than 65 years and underwent CABG in Tabriz Shahid Madani Heart Center since 2003 to 2007 were enrolled. We examined the probable differences of CAD risk factors between male and female groups and age groups. We also assessed the change of risk factors presentation in last 5 years. There was not significant difference between risk factor numbers in <45 and >65 years groups, but smoking and dyslipidemia was more prevalent in patients < 45 than > 65 years old. Hypertension and diabetes mellitus was more prevalent in patients > 65 old than < 45 years old; also differences were found between males and females patients, so that dyslipidemia, diabetes and hypertension were more prevalent in women than men. Some risk factors were recognized as acting more on one gender than the other. Also, the majority of patients have one or more risk factors, but different age and gender groups may have different risk factors that suggest the need for exact programming for appropriate prophylactic and therapeutic interventions in all groups.