Arterial distensibility and physical activity in the ARIC study

Purpose: Arterial distensibility decreases with age. This decrease may be a ssociated with the initiation and/or progression of hypertension and athero sclerosis and may be attenuated by positive lifestyle habits, including hab itual physical activity. We tested the hypothesis that self-reported sport, leisure, and work, physical activity is associated with greater arterial d istensibility (i.e., carotid artery pulsatile diameter changes). Methods: T he Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study assessed left common ca rotid arterial diameters and intimal-medial wall thickness (IMT) using B-mo de ultrasound techniques, in 10,644 African-American and white men and wome n abed 45-64 yr and free of cardiovascular disease. Results: Work activity, but not sports or leisure activity, was weakly associated with greater art erial distensibility in an ANCOVA model adjusted for blood pressure and oth er covariates (diastolic arterial diameter, pulse pressure, pulse pressure squared, age, race, sex, smoking, dietary fat intake, height, education, an d clinical center) (P for linear trend = 0.03). Vigorous sports activity wa s weakly positively associated with arterial distensibility (arterial diame ter change (mean +/- SE in mm) 0.42 +/- 0.004 vs 0.41 +/- 0.002 for the 12. 7% of participants reporting any vs no vigorous activity, P = 0.02), and th is association was not attenuated by adjustment for IMT, body mass index, l ow-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ch olesterol, or diabetes. Repeated analyses with traditional arterial stiffne ss indices showed similar findings for vigorous but not work activity. Conc lusion: In contrast to several smaller studies, these findings do not suppo rt the hypothesis that habitual physical activity has a strong, consistent positive effect on arterial distensibility.