The Association between Physical Activity and Peripheral Artery Disease in U.S. Adults

Abstract

Whether physical activity relates to peripheral vascular disease remains less clear. PURPOSE: We investigated the relation of physical activity to peripheral artery disease in 4896 men and women aged 40 to 85 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2000 and 2001–2002). METHODS: Systolic blood pressures were measured at the right arm (brachial vessel) and both ankles (posterior tibial vessels), and ankle-brachial index (ABI) scores were computed by the ratio of systolic blood pressure in the ankles to that in the right arm. Peripheral artery disease (PAD) was classified as ABI <0.9. Physical activity was assessed by a standardized questionnaire and was classified as low, moderate, and high activity categories. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between physical activity and PAD. Inactive individuals constitute the reference category. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, and race, there was an inverse association between physical activity and prevalence of PAD (p for trend = 0.002). The odds ratios of having PAD for persons in the moderately and highly active individuals were 0.52 (95% CI: 0.31, 0.90) and 0.35 (95% CI: 0.18, 0.69), respectively, as compared with inactive individuals. These associations persisted after additional adjustment for income, education, cigarette smoking, alcohol intake, systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, and antihypertensive medication use (p for trend = 0.007). Highly active individuals had a 60% (95% CI: 0.20, 0.79) and moderately active individuals had a 44% (95% CI: 0.32, 0.97) lower odds of having PAD, respectively, as compared with inactive individuals.