Beneficial Effects of Weekly Walking Activity on Vascular Hypertensive Mediated Organ Damage in Community-dwelling Elderly Chinese: Northern Shanghai Study

Abstract

Background: The value of exercise is well-established for health promotion. Walking as the most common campaign in older people, is recommended to improve their cardiovascular health. However, the direct association between weekly walking activity and asymptomatic hypertensive mediated organ damage (HMOD) remains unclear.Methods: 2830 community-dwelling elderly subjects (over 65 years) in northern Shanghai were recruited from June 2014 to June 2018. Weekly walking activity was evaluated by standard questionnaire based on the International Physical Activity Questionnaires-short form (including walking duration per time and walking days per week). Within the framework of comprehensive cardiovascular examinations, HMOD, including left ventricular mass index (LVMI), peak transmitral pulsed Doppler velocity/early diastolic tissue Doppler velocity (E/Ea), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), arterial plaque, creatinine clearance rate (CCR), urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) and ankle-brachial index (ABI), were all evaluated.Results: 1862 (65.8%) participants were enrolled in weekly walking activity, with 56.8 ± 36.8 min/day and a median of 6.71 days/week walking. Young elderly, fewer smokers, lower CIMT, lower cf-PWV, fewer abnormal ABI, lower prevalence of hypertension and coronary heart disease were observed in walking activity group. Similarly, pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that weekly walking activity was significantly correlated with elderly (age ≥ 70 years) and smoker. After adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, weekly walking activity was only significantly associated with peripheral artery diseases in logistic regression analysis. Finally, only walking duration more than 30 min per time was related to arterial plaque in subgroup analysis of weekly walking acitivity (OR: 1.048, 95% CI: 1.002-1.095, P = 0.038).Conclusions: In the community-dwelling elderly Chinese, weekly walking activity seemed to be a way to encourage a healthy lifestyle for HMOD prevention and management, especially for vascular HMOD, irrespective of walking duration per time and walking days per week.Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02368938 (clinicaltrials.gov)