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Do older adults with higher daily ambulatory activity have lower central blood pressure?

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Abstract

Background and aims

We aimed to test the hypothesis that central blood pressure (BP) would be lower in healthy older adults with greater daily ambulatory activity.

Methods

Forty-three (24 women, 19 men) older adults wore a triaxial accelerometer at the hip for 1 week. The volume of ambulatory activity was estimated by average steps per day. As a proxy of intensity of ambulatory activity, 1-min peak step accumulation, or the maximum number of steps taken within a minute was averaged from each day. Participants were considered “active” if they had >7500 steps per day or >105 steps per min. Radial arterial tonometry was used to estimate central (aortic) BP from pulse wave analysis.

Results

After adjusting for age and sex, adults with higher steps per day (n = 18) tended to have lower central pulse pressure (p = 0.08). Interestingly, adults with higher peak step accumulation (n = 25) had significantly lower central pulse pressure (40.4 ± 1.6 vs. 46.8 ± 2.0 mmHg; p = 0.02) after adjusting for age and sex. Stepwise regression including age, sex, body mass index, and peak step accumulation found body mass index to be the strongest predictor of central systolic BP [β = 0.42, 95 % CI (0.13, 0.70), p = 0.004] while peak step accumulation was the strongest predictor of central pulse pressure [β = −0.31, 95 % CI (−0.01, −0.60), p = 0.043].

Conclusions

These results find older adults with an “active” daily walking pattern, particularly having a higher number of maximal steps in a minute, have lower central pulse pressure than older adults with lower daily ambulatory activity.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants for their time and effort. We also thank Ramona Harwell for her valuable administrative assistance. This study was funded by institutional startup funds.

Conflict of interest

The author has no real or perceived conflicts of interest arising from intellectual, personal, or financial circumstances of this research.

Compliance with ethical standards

This study was approved by an institutional review board for human privacy and protection, and follows ethical standards set by the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences, Texas Tech University, Box 43011, Lubbock, TX, 7409-3011, USA

    Joaquin U. Gonzales

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  1. Joaquin U. Gonzales
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Correspondence to Joaquin U. Gonzales.

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Gonzales, J.U. Do older adults with higher daily ambulatory activity have lower central blood pressure?. Aging Clin Exp Res 28, 965–971 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0384-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0384-6

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