Heart attacks and lower-limb function in master endurance athletes

Purpose: Whether very vigorous physical activity bestows on the participant more health benefits or more adverse effects is unclear: we investigated w hether men participating in competitive endurance sports in middle and old age are at increased risk of heart attacks as well as of lower-limb osteoar thritis and disability. Methods: In our cohort study with an 11-yr follow-u p, we studied 269 male orienteering runners (mean age 48.6 yr at baseline; range 37-61), who in 1984 were placed among the 60 best in their master ori enteer age-class in Finland, and 188 male nonsmoking controls (mean age 50. 4 yr; range 39-61) classified as healthy at 20 yr of age and without overt ischemic heart disease up until 1985. We followed mortality and studied the prevalence of questionnaire-reported physician-diagnosed diseases and disa bilities at the end of the follow-up in late 1995. Results: Two (0.7%) of t he 269 runners and 10 (5.3%) of the 188 controls had suffered myocardial in farctions during the follow-up, the age-adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) being 0.15 (0.03-0.67) in runners compared with controls (P = 0. 0059). At follow-up, orienteering runners reported knee osteoarthritis and knee pain more often than did the controls, whereas the occurrence of hip o steoarthritis and hip pain did not differ. Disability due to hip or knee pa in after the same everyday activities tended to be less in the runners. Con clusion: In top-level master endurance athletes having a long-term training background and participating in competitive endurance sports, the risk bot h of heart attack and of lower-limb disability is low.