Elsevier

American Heart Journal

Volume 147, Issue 6, June 2004, Pages 1024-1032
American Heart Journal

Clinical investigations: acute ischemic heart disease
Resting heart rate and cause-specific death in a 16.5-year cohort study of the Japanese general population

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2003.12.020Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Several prospective studies have reported resting heart rate (HR) to be a risk factor for certain cause-specific death, together with sex- or age-specific differences in the effects of HR on death. However, there have been few prospective data from non-Western populations.

Methods

Cohort study, over 16.5 years to date of death or end of follow-up (November 15, 1998) involving 8800 men and women ≥30 years of age randomly selected throughout Japan, who participated in the National Survey on Circulatory Disorders in 1980. Resting HR was determined from 3 consecutive intervals between R waves on the 12-lead electrocardiogram.

Results

For middle-aged men (30 to 59 years of age), in the highest quartile of HR, there was a significant positive association with cardiovascular (RR, 2.55; 95% CI, 1.22 to 5.31) and all-cause death (RR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.06 to 2.00). For middle-aged women, in the highest quartile, there was a significant positive association with noncancer, noncardiovascular (RR, 2.41; 95% CI, 1.04 to 5.59), and all-cause death (RR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.26 to 3.01). Resting HR also showed a significant positive association with cardiac events but not to stroke. These relations were not evident for elderly subjects (≥60 years of age). Results were not affected when deaths within the first 5 years of follow-up were excluded, except for noncancer, noncardiovascular death.

Conclusions

High resting HR is an independent predictor of long-term death in the Japanese general population.

Section snippets

Populations

A total of 10,546 community dwellers (4640 men and 5906 women), ≥30 years of age in 300 randomly selected districts, participated in the survey; they were followed until November 15 in 1998. The current study extended the follow-up period of NIPPONDATA80 study, the details of which have previously been reported.12, 13, 14 Of the 10,546 participants, 1746 were excluded for the following reasons: past history of coronary heart disease or stroke (n = 280), missing information at baseline survey (n

Results

Table Ishows age-adjusted means or prevalences in the baseline characteristics of all participants by quartile of resting HR. There were significant differences in mean values for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and serum glucose; they were higher in higher HR quartiles in both sexes. Mean values of BMI for men and albumin for women were also higher in higher quartiles of resting HR. Prevalence of antihypertensive agents users for women was lower in higher

Discussion

To our knowledge, few previous studies have examined the relation between resting HR and long-term death in Japanese living in Japan22, 23 (and Naito Y, et al, abstract in the Third International Conference of Preventive Cardiology, Oslo, 1993). However, these prior studies did not include age-specific analysis and were only limited to men. As in Western populations, higher HR was an independent predictor of all-cause death for middle-aged men and women in Japan. Resting HR also showed a

Acknowledgements

We thank Misao Ohara, Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, for excellent clerical support in this research.

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    Supported by the Research Grant for Cardiovascular Diseases (7A-2) from the ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan, and a Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan (Comprehensive Research on Aging and Health: H11-Chouju-046, H14-Chouju-003).

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