High heart rate relates to clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in a screened cohort

Increased heart rate (HR) is a predictor of cardiovascular mortality, so th e present study used a screened cohort to investigate whether the clusterin g of cardiovascular risk factors is associated with increased HR. Individua ls who were receiving medication for hypertension or heart disease and thos e who did not have an ECG record or who had a record of arrhythmia were exc luded. In total, 8,508 subjects (5,299 men, 3,209 women; age range, 18-89 y ears) were studied. Subjects were divided into 2 HR classes using the value of mean HR+ 1SD as the cut-off point: low HR (HR <77 beats/min, n=7,320) a nd high HR (HR <greater than or equal to> 77 beats/min, n=1,188). For logis tic regression analysis, the dependent variable was HR class and the indepe ndent variables were the number of risk factors (ic, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hypertriglyceridemia each of which was associated positively with HR class by multivariate analysis). The odds ratios and 95% confidenc e intervals for the number of risk factors were 1.412 (1.216-1.640) for 1 r isk factor, 2.800 (2.269-3.455) for 2, and 4.582 (2.815-7.459) for 3. Multi variate regression analyses showed that the number of risk factors from 0 t o 3 correlated positively with high HR. HR increased significantly with clu stering of risk factors even with low HR (regression coefficient was 1.147, p<0.0001). Modifying the risk factors may lower HR and reduce cardiovascul ar mortality.