The prognostic implications of heart rate (HR) change over years have never been assessed.
It was hypothesized that an increase in HR in apparently healthy persons observed
over years could be associated with an increase in mortality risk and conversely.
A total of 5,139 asymptomatic working men (aged 42 to 53 years) free of clinically
detectable cardiovascular disease were recruited from 1967 to 1972 and had their HRs
measured at rest in standardized conditions every year for 5 consecutive years. HR
change was defined as the difference between HR at examination 5 and HR at inclusion,
and subjects were divided into tertiles according to decrease >4 beats/min, unchanged
(from −4 to +3 beats/min), and increase >3 beats/min. After >20 years of mortality
surveillance, 1,219 deaths were observed. After adjustments were made for confounding
factors, including baseline HR at rest, and compared with subjects with unchanged
HRs, subjects with decreased HRs during the 5 years had a 14% decreased mortality
risk (RR 0.86, 95% confidence interval 0.74 to 1.00, p = 0.05), whereas subjects with
increased HRs during the 5 years had a 19% increased mortality risk (RR 1.19, and
95% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.37, p <0.012). In conclusion, change in HR at rest
over 5 years was an independent predictor of mortality in middle-aged men.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 10, 2008
Accepted:
August 31,
2008
Received in revised form:
August 31,
2008
Received:
May 22,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
