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Arrhythmias and sudden death
Original research article
Vital exhaustion and sudden cardiac death in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
  1. Brittany M Bogle1,
  2. Nona Sotoodehnia2,
  3. Anna M Kucharska-Newton1,
  4. Wayne D Rosamond1
  1. 1 Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  2. 2 Division of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Brittany M Bogle, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; bbogle{at}email.unc.edu

Abstract

Objective Vital exhaustion (VE), a construct defined as lack of energy, increased fatigue and irritability, and feelings of demoralisation, has been associated with cardiovascular events. We sought to examine the relation between VE and sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study.

Methods The ARIC Study is a predominately biracial cohort of men and women, aged 45–64 at baseline, initiated in 1987 through random sampling in four US communities. VE was measured using the Maastricht questionnaire between 1990 and 1992 among 13 923 individuals. Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the hazard of out-of-hospital SCD across tertiles of VE scores.

Results Through 2012, 457 SCD cases, defined as a sudden pulseless condition presumed due to a ventricular tachyarrhythmia in a previously stable individual, were identified in ARIC by physician record review. Adjusting for age, sex and race/centre, participants in the highest VE tertile had an increased risk of SCD (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.87), but these findings did not remain significant after adjustment for established cardiovascular disease risk factors (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.20).

Conclusions Among participants of the ARIC study, VE was not associated with an increased risk for SCD after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors.

  • epidemiology

https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2017-311825

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All persons who meet authorship criteria are listed as authors, and all authors certify that they have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content, including participation in the concept, design, analysis, writing or revision of the manuscript. BB: conception and design of study; analysis and interpretation of data; drafting the manuscript; revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. NS: conception and design of study; revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; acquisition of data. AMK-N: conception and design of study; drafting the manuscript; revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. WR: conception and design of study; interpretation of data; drafting the manuscript; revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content.

    • Funding The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study is carried out as a collaborative study supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute contracts (HHSN268201100005C, HHSN268201100006C, HHSN268201100007C, HHSN268201100008C, HHSN268201100009C, HHSN268201100010C, HHSN268201100011C and HHSN268201100012C). BB was supported by the National Institutes of Health under the Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award (5T32HL007055-39) from the NHLBI. Adjudication of SCD events was supported by HL111089 from the NHLBI.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Institutional Review Board.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.