Abstract P225: Physical Activity and Heart Failure Prognosis in Older Postmenopausal Women

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that participating in physical activity (PA) following heart failure (HF) diagnosis is associated with better prognosis, including lower mortality risk. Few studies have focused on this relationship in postmenopausal women, in whom HF burden is high. Methods: The present study, conducted in the Women’s Health Initiative, included 2,181 postmenopausal women (mean age 68 years; 85% white, 10% black, 3% Hispanic at enrollment in 1993-1998) who were diagnosed postbaseline with incident hospitalized acute HF and had at least one self-reported PA assessment before and after (mean age 73 at latter assessment) HF diagnosis. Total recreational PA was summarized in metabolic equivalent (MET) hours per week. Women were followed for all-cause mortality from their post-HF PA assessment through March 2014. Cox regression with age as the time scale was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for mortality associated with PA categories (before/after HF): Inactive (<7.5 MET-hr/wk)/Inactive, n=1,048; Active (≥7.5 MET-hr/wk)/Inactive, n=407; Inactive/Active, n=212; Active/Active, n=514. Results: There were 1,047 (48%) deaths during a mean follow-up of 12 years. Crude mortality rates per 1,000 person-years [number of deaths] across the above PA groups were 42.4 [533], 42.1 [206], 36.9 [94], and 34.7 [214]. After adjusting for age (timescale), race and ethnicity, and WHI study component, HRs (95% CI) for mortality across the PA groups were 1.00 (referent), 0.94 (0.79, 1.10), 0.80 (0.64, 1.01), and 0.60 (0.51, 0.71). Further adjustment for baseline education, BMI, physical function, smoking, menopausal hormone use, history of diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, atrial fibrillation, and incident myocardial infarction during follow-up prior to HF diagnosis attenuated these associations but did not eliminate statistical significance for the Active/Active group: 1.00 (referent), 1.04 (0.87, 1.24), 0.87 (0.69, 1.10), 0.74 (0.62, 0.89). A similar pattern of results was evident when cardiovascular mortality was the study outcome. Conclusions: Maintaining PA levels following hospitalization for acute HF was associated with lower all-cause mortality in older postmenopausal women, an understudied population in this regard. Among women whose PA following HF diagnosis was higher than their pre-HF PA level, there was a trend for lower mortality although this did not achieve statistical significance. Studies are needed to determine whether PA is associated with prognosis in HF subtypes, such as HF with preserved ejection which is a prevalent HF subtype in older women.