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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on December 6, 2006
Age and Ageing 2007 36(1):57-62; doi:10.1093/ageing/afl127
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Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.

Longitudinal Change in Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors in Older Runners

E. Todd Schroeder1, Steven A. Hawkins1,2, Dan Hyslop1, Alberto F. Vallejo1, Nicole E. Jensky1 and Robert A. Wiswell1

1 Department of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
2 School of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science, California State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA

Address correspondence to: E. Todd Schroeder. Tel: (323) 442-2498 Fax: (323) 442-1515. Email: eschroed{at}usc.edu

Background: it is currently not clear how coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors change over time in chronic exercisers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the longitudinal change in CHD risk factors in chronically endurance-trained men and women, and to determine the exercise and nutritional factors associated with those respective changes.

Methods and results: ninety-one middle-aged runners (56 male, 35 female) were tested on two occasions approximately 10 years apart (aged 50.8 ± 8.0 versus 60.0 ± 7.9 years at respective visits). Body composition, VO2max, blood pressure (BP) and blood chemistries were measured, and the subjects' self-reported training and nutritional history. Data were analysed by factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate step-wise regression. Among the entire sample, training volume decreased (61.1 ± 28.2 versus 44.7 ± 24.6 km/week, P<0.05) but nutritional variables did not change. Body fat (16.9 ± 5.3% for men versus 21.1 ± 5.3% for women, P<0.05), blood lipids, blood glucose and systolic and diastolic BP all changed negatively over the study duration. These changes occurred similarly in both genders and irrespective of menstrual and hormone replacement status among the women. Lastly, the changes in CHD risk factors were not predicted by change in exercise or nutritional patterns.

Conclusions: despite the maintenance of significant volumes of exercise and the absence of changes in diet, most CHD risk factors demonstrated unfavourable changes over 10 years in chronic men and women runners. However, the absolute values for most CHD risk factors remained better than those reported for sedentary peers of comparable age.

Keywords: endurance exercise, blood lipids, blood pressure, elderly

Received 1 November 2005; accepted in revised form 1 September 2006.


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