Abstract TP172: Effect of Playing Golf on Cardiovascular Diseases and Death in Older Persons: The Cardiovascular Health Study

Abstract

Importance: Golf is played by about 25 million people in United States and may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by providing regular exercise and stress relief. Objective: To test whether playing golf regularly reduces the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and/or death among elderly persons. Design, Settings, and Participants: We analyzed data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), an NHLBI-funded the population-based, prospective observational cohort study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adults 65 years or older. Starting in 1989, and continuing through 1999, participants underwent annual extensive clinical examinations and 6 monthly clinic visits, and once clinic visits ended, participants were contacted by phone to ascertain occurrence of cardiovascular events. Golf status was inquired at baseline and longitudinal follow-up was conducted for a mean (SD) of 13 (6.2) years. Persons who played golf for at least 1 month per year were considered as regular golf players. We performed Cox proportional hazards analysis to determine the effect of playing golf on incident MI, stroke, and death during follow up after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: The mean (SD) age of the entire cohort (n = 5888) was 72.8 (5.6) years; 2466 (41.9%) were men. Golf was played regularly by 384 persons. During follow-up, 31 (8.1%) participants had stroke and 38 (9.9%) had MI. Overall mortality rate was 1,115 deaths per 100,000 population. There was a significantly lower rate of death among persons who played golf regularly compared with those who did not (24.6% vs 15.1%). There was no difference in the rates of MI or stroke among those who played golf regularly. In the multivariate analysis, death was less likely among persons who played golf regularly (HR 0.6, 95% CI (0.4-0.7; p-<.0001) compared with those who did not after adjusting for age, race, gender, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Their risk of MI (HR 1.0, 95% CI 0.7-1.3) or stroke (HR 1.0, 95% CI 0.7-1.5) was not lower among golf players in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: In this large, population-based study, elderly persons who played golf were at lower risk of death. However, the protective effect of playing golf was not related to reduction in cardiovascular events.