Important public health questions have arisen as huge numbers of sedentary persons take up exercise in their leisure time, as if for a great natural experiment. This demands comprehensive study, especially as it may affect, favorably or adversely, the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD); other cardiovascular disease, and total mortality. The need for answers on these issues is far too important to be ignored. The proposed work would extend observations on characteristics in youth among 50,000 male former students from Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania and 3,500 female of the latter, through observations on contemporary characteristics among surviving alumni, so as to identify changing patterns of physical activity and other habits in life-style (e.g., body weight-for-height, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption) for any relationships to hypertensive-atherosclerotic diseases that develop later in life, and to lifespan per se. Decedents now number 12,000, leaving 41,500 survivors aged 48-88. Resources include: 1) college data from physical examination, social and athletic records; 2) self-assessed mail questionnaire responses from alumni on exercise, other life-style elements, health, familial disease pattern; 3) official death certificates. The college data span 35 years, 1916-1950, the questionnaires 19 years, 1962 to 1980. A projected mailing would update this information by case-finding and followup on trends. Analyses will examine changing patterns of physical activity and life-style characteristics for relationships to hypertensive-atherosclerotic disease incidence and total mortality. Attention will be directed to type, timing, frequency, duration, intensity, intermittency, and trends of exercise that might alter risk of cardiovascular disease (nonfatal and fatal) and total mortality. Studied likewise will be absolute measurements and changes in other life-style elements as related to these outcome variables. Multiple predictors will be examined for confounding and interactions in relation to life-style changes and disease risk. So far, life-style assessments to identify changing patterns have covered two intervals from college days to the early or mid 1960's and to the late 1970's on each of 25,000 men and 2,000 women, and extensive background of quantified information bearing on the problem at hand. The further observations and analyses proposed will help show whether and how a shift to active life-style alters CHD risk and longevity.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL034174-03
Application #
3346866
Study Section
(SSS)
Project Start
1984-09-01
Project End
1987-08-31
Budget Start
1986-09-01
Budget End
1987-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
082359691
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02115
Lee, I M; Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger Jr, R S (2001) A prospective cohort study of physical activity and body size in relation to prostate cancer risk (United States). Cancer Causes Control 12:187-93
Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger Jr, R S; Lee, I M (2001) Alcohol consumption and risk of prostate cancer: The Harvard Alumni Health Study. Int J Epidemiol 30:749-55
Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger, R S; Lee, I M (2000) Comparison of National Death Index and World Wide Web death searches. Am J Epidemiol 152:107-11
Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger Jr, R S; Lee, I M (2000) Physical activity and coronary heart disease in men: The Harvard Alumni Health Study. Circulation 102:975-80
Lee, I M; Paffenbarger Jr, R S (2000) Associations of light, moderate, and vigorous intensity physical activity with longevity. The Harvard Alumni Health Study. Am J Epidemiol 151:293-9
Lee, I M; Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger Jr, R S (2000) Physical activity and coronary heart disease risk in men: does the duration of exercise episodes predict risk? Circulation 102:981-6
Lee, I M; Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger Jr, R S (1999) Physical activity and risk of lung cancer. Int J Epidemiol 28:620-5
Sesso, H D; Paffenbarger, R S; Ha, T et al. (1999) Physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk in middle-aged and older women. Am J Epidemiol 150:408-16
Cole, S R; Kawachi, I; Sesso, H D et al. (1999) Sense of exhaustion and coronary heart disease among college alumni. Am J Cardiol 84:1401-5
Sahi, T; Paffenbarger Jr, R S; Hsieh, C C et al. (1998) Body mass index, cigarette smoking, and other characteristics as predictors of self-reported, physician-diagnosed gallbladder disease in male college alumni. Am J Epidemiol 147:644-51

Showing the most recent 10 out of 37 publications