Association of postexercise blood pressure with cardiovascular outcomes and mortality: The CARDIA study

Abstract Postexercise blood pressure (BP) may be a better predictor of cardiovascular risk than office BP, but there is a lack of data supporting this claim. We hypothesized that postexercise BP may be an important prognostic marker. Our aim was to evaluate the association of postexercise BP with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and all‐cause mortality. A total of 2581 participants (median age, 46 years; 55.9% women) from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study at year 20 (2005–2006) who underwent a graded exercise treadmill test using a modified Balke graded protocol were included. Postexercise BP was measured at baseline. Cox models were used to estimate the associations of postexercise BP with MACE and all‐cause mortality. Participants were followed up until December 31, 2021. In the entire population, postexercise systolic BP showed no significant association with MACE or all‐cause mortality, while postexercise diastolic BP was associated with MACE (hazard ratios [HR], 1.27 [95% CI, 1.06–1.52], per 10 mmHg increase) and all‐cause mortality (HR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.05–1.51], per 10 mmHg increase). In the normal BP group, postexercise systolic BP was not significantly associated with MACE or all‐cause mortality, and postexercise diastolic BP was strongly associated with MACE (HR, 1.57 [95% CI, 1.18–2.09], per 10 mmHg increase). In this population‐based cohort study, postexercise diastolic BP was significantly associated with the risk of MACE and all‐cause mortality. Among individuals with normal BP, postexercise diastolic BP could identify those at a higher risk of cardiovascular events.