Could Exercise Prevent CVD in Patients With Genetic Risk?

Physical activity may help reduce the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) among individuals with genetic risk for CVD, according to new findings.

This association was demonstrated in recent analyses of 502,635 individuals enrolled in the UK Biobank study.
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Specifically, researchers investigated potential relationships of grip strength, objective and subjective physical activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness with CV events and all-cause death. Genetic risk based on coronary heart disease and atrial fibrillation (AF) risk scores was taken into account.

Findings revealed inverse associations of grip strength, physical activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness with incident coronary heart disease (hazard ratios [HRs] 0.79, 0.95, and 0.68, respectively) and AF (HRs 0.75, 0.93, and 0.60, respectively).

In particular, the researchers found that higher grip strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were tied to lower risks of incident coronary heart disease and AF in each genetic risk score group.

Patients with high genetic risk of these diseases who engaged in high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were found to have a 49% lower risk of coronary heart disease (HR 0.51) and 60% lower risk of AF (HR 0.40).

“Fitness and physical activity demonstrated inverse associations with incident [CVD] in the general population, as well as in individuals with elevated genetic risk for these diseases,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Associations of fitness, physical activity, strength, and genetic risk with cardiovascular disease: longitudinal analyses in the UK Biobank study. Circulation. 2018;137(14). https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032432.