(947.31) The Impact of Muscular Strength On Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Poster Board Number: E500

Joel Harden (Old Dominion University), Leryn Reynolds (Old Dominion University), Patrick Wilson (Old Dominion University), Gena Gerstner (University of North Carolina, University of North Carolina)

The purpose of this study was to determine the associations between isokinetic leg muscular strength and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor characterizations in Americans aged 50 and older.  Using a publicly available dataset from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a secondary analysis was conducted on participants (males ≥50 yrs; females ≥55 yrs; Nf10,858) pooled from 1999 to 2002.  CVD risk factors were determined using the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) cutoff values, with all nine ACSM risk factors analyzed.  CVD risk factor characterization was determined by creating CVD risk factor profiles (i.e., the total number of CVD risk factors an individual possesses), then separating participants into low (0-2 CVD risk factors), moderate (3-5 CVD risk factors), and high (6-8 CVD risk factors) risk groups.  Muscular strength was determined by isokinetic maximal peak force (PF) of the leg extensors, both raw and normalized to body mass.  Normalized, but not raw, muscular strength was shown to be significantly inversely associated with CVD risk factor characterization for both males and females (Pamp;lt;0.001). Muscular strength was separated into quintiles of strength (Q1 = lowest, Q5 = highest). Using ordinal regression and adjusting for all other CVD risk factors, age (males: OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.11-1.15; females: OR: 1.12; 95% CI:1.10-1.15) obesity (males: OR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.40-0.72; females: OR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.41-0.82), and smoking status (males: OR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.31-2.26; females: OR: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.04-1.86) were significantly associated with isokinetic leg extensor muscular strength in both males and females, while blood glucose (OR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.07-1.86) was only associated with muscular strength in males.  Evidence from the present study supports the notion that muscular strength may have a protective effect against CVD.  However, this association must be shown independent of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and in clinical trials before any causative link can be established.