Association between cardiorespiratory fitness and health care costs in hypertensive men.

Atherosclerosis

Division of Cardiology, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, CA, USA; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.

Published: August 2021

Background And Aims: Hypertension increases healthcare costs, but the impact of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) on these costs is unknown. This study explored the association between healthcare costs and CRF among hypertensive and normotensive men.

Methods: We studied 9794 male subjects aged 58.5 ± 11.3 years from the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center, including 6413 with and 3381 without hypertension. CRF was classified into four age-stratified categories according to metabolic equivalents (METs) derived from exercise testing: low fit (4.6 ± 1.2 METs; n = 2481), moderate fit (6.6 ± 1.2 METs; n = 2412), fit (8.0 ± 1.3 METs; n = 2505), and high fit (10.8 ± 2.1 METs; n = 2396). Annual costs per subject were quantified over eight years.

Results: Total annual healthcare costs were higher in subjects with hypertension ($34,794, 95% CI, 32,828 to 36,761) in comparison to non-hypertensive subjects ($30,221, 95% CI, 26,104 to 32,450) (p < 0.01). In hypertensive subjects, a graded reduction in annual healthcare costs was observed as CRF was higher; costs were $40,346 for low fit, $35,939 for moderate fit, $32,312 for fit, and $29,277 for high fit subjects (p < 0.001). For each 1-MET increase in CRF, annual costs per subject (USD) were $1752 (95% CI, -2476 to -1,027, p < 0.001) lower among those with hypertension and $1025 (95% CI, -2047 to -2, p < 0.05) lower in those without hypertension.

Conclusions: Higher CRF is associated with lower healthcare costs in men with and without hypertension. The impact of CRF on healthcare costs is more striking in those with hypertension.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2021.06.914DOI Listing

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