Peak oxygen pulse and mortality risk in healthy women and men: The Ball State Adult Fitness Longitudinal Lifestyle Study (BALL ST).

Unlabelled: Peak oxygen pulse (O pulse) may have predictive utility for health outcomes yet, presently, has only been examined in men and only using a single baseline measure.

Purpose: The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship between O pulse and all-cause mortality in apparently healthy women and men. A secondary aim was to explore the relationship between longitudinal changes to O pulse and mortality.

Methods: The sample included 3877 participants (43% women) for the primary aim and 759 participants (32% women) who performed two cardiopulmonary exercise tests ≥1 year apart for the secondary aim. Cox proportional hazard models were performed to determine the relationship between O pulse and mortality. Prognostic peak oxygen consumption (VO) and O pulse models were compared using the concordance index and Akaike information criterion (AIC).

Results: In the assessment from baseline, there were 730 deaths over a 24.7 ± 11.8 year follow-up period. For men, a single measure of O pulse was inversely associated with risk for mortality (P < 0.05). However, the concordance index and AIC indicated lower discrimination compared to VO models and O pulse did not provide complementary benefit to VO models. For women, O pulse was not associated with mortality risk. In the longitudinal analysis, there were 168 deaths over a follow-up of 20.1 ± 11.4 years. Changes to O pulse were not significantly related to mortality in either sex.

Conclusions: Within an apparently healthy cohort, a single assessment of O pulse is related to all-cause mortality in men but not women. Further, longitudinal changes to O pulse are not predictive of mortality in either sex. These findings suggest O pulse may have limited prognostic utility in healthy individuals, particularly within healthy women.