Associations Of Clinical Characteristics And Health-Related Behaviors With Physical Activity Levels In Stage B Heart Failure Patients

Hypothesis: insufficiently active heart failure patients will report poorer QoL, more fatigue and depressive mood compared to active patients. Aims: To characterize clinical characteristics and health-related behaviors according to physical activity (PA). Also, to explore predicting factors of quality of life (QoL). Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of Stage B HF patients. PA classification was set as active, moderately active or insufficiently active, according to the LTEQ questionnaire. For QoL, the SF-36 questionnaire was used. ANOVAS, Chi-Square tests or likelihood ratios and unadjusted multiple regression models were calculated. Significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Results: In this cohort, 277 HF patients completed the PA questionnaire. The prevalence of active patients was higher than moderately active and insufficiently active (53.3% vs 15.2% and 29.6%), respectively. Younger age (p = 0.044), lower waist circumference (WC) (p = 0.002), and lower waist-to-hip ratio (p = 0.046) were associated with being active. The prevalence of Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the active groups was significantly lower (p = 0.001). Physically active groups had cases of mild LV enlargement (1.4% and 7.5%, respectively), while no cases were observed among insufficiently active patients (p = 0.017). PA was positively associated with less fatigue (p= 0.002), more vigor (p = 0.001), more self-efficacy (p < 0.001), and better quality of life (p = 0.002). Patients who were less physically active had more inflammation (CRP, p = 0.015; IL-6, p <0.001; TNF-α: p = 0.033, and IL-1ra, p = 0.001). WC (β =-0.16, p = 0.008), glucose (β =-0.12, p < 0.001) and fatigue (β = - 0.39, p < 0.001) predicted general health perception (R 2 = 0.449). For physical functioning (high scores reflects performing PA without limitations due to health), WC (β = - 0.28, p = 0.001), sleep (β = - 1.50, p = 0.003) and fatigue (β = - 0.32, p = 0.018) were significant predictors (R 2 = 0.422); while age (β = 0.36, p <0.001) physical activity (β = 0.051, p = 0.055), sleep (β = 0.50, p =0.046), fatigue (β = -0.37, p <0.001) and depression (β = -1.12, p <0.001) predicted emotional well-being (R 2 = 0.696). Conclusion: Physically active heart failure patients had a better anthropometric profile and lower prevalence of T2DM. In this cohort, PA was not a significant predictor for general and physical functioning, but it remained relevant for predicting emotional well-being.