The following is a summary of “Impact of cardiorespiratory fitness and diabetes status on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: An NHANES retrospective cohort study,” published in the June 2024 issue of Cardiology by Ung et al.
High cardiovascular fitness is correlated with reduced mortality in individuals with pre-diabetes (pre-DM) and diabetes mellitus (DM). However, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) mitigates the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) – related and all-cause mortality remains unclear.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to investigate the correlation between CRF status and CVD morbidity and all-cause mortality across populations with non-DM, pre-DM, and DM.
They analyzed 13,968 adults from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey NHANES III, grouping them into non-DM, pre-DM, or DM based on HbA1c levels. VO2Max was estimated using the Fitness Registry and Importance of Exercise: A National Database (FRIEND) equation and split into three levels. First VO2Max tertile was the lowest, and third VO2Max tertile was the highest. Cox regression assessed how glycemic levels and VO2Max related to CVD and all-cause mortality.
The results showed that individuals with DM in the highest fitness tertile had very low CVD (HR 0.13; 95% CI 0.06-0.27; P<0.0001) and all-cause mortality rates (HR 0.28; 95% CI 0.21-0.38; P<0.0001), comparable to or lower than those with pre-DM (CVD HR 1.02 [95% CI: 0.78-1.33, P<0.892]; all-cause HR 0.96 [95% CI: 0.83-1.12, P<0.5496]) or non-DM (CVD HR 0.65, [95% CI: 0.52-0.80, P<0.0001], all-cause HR 0.61 [95% CI: 0.55-0.68, P<0.0001]) at lower fitness levels. Higher CRF levels led to lower all-cause mortality, regardless of DM status.
Investigators concluded that higher fitness levels in people with DM are linked to total and CVD mortality rates as low or lower than those without DM but with lower fitness.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666602224000387