Age, sex and disease-specific associations between resting heart rate and cardiovascular mortality in the UK BIOBANK.

Objective: To define the sex, age, and disease-specific associations of resting heart rate (RHR) with cardiovascular and mortality outcomes in 502,534 individuals from the UK Biobank over 7-12 years of prospective follow-up.
Methods: The main outcomes were all-cause, cardiovascular, and ischaemic heart disease mortality. Additional outcomes included incident acute myocardial infarction (AMI), fatal AMI, and cancer mortality. We considered a wide range of confounders and the effects of competing hazards. Results are reported as hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause mortality and sub-distribution hazard ratios (SHR) for other outcomes with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) per 10bpm increment of RHR.
Results: In men, for every 10bpm increase of RHR there was 22% (HR 1.22, CI 1.20 to 1.24, p = 3×10-123) greater hazard of all-cause and 17% (SHR 1.17, CI 1.13 to 1.21, p = 5.6×10-18) greater hazard of cardiovascular mortality; for women, corresponding figures were 19% (HR 1.19, CI 1.16 to 1.22, p = 8.9×10-45) and 14% (SHR 1.14, CI 1.07 to 1.22, p = 0.00008). Associations between RHR and ischaemic outcomes were of greater magnitude amongst men than women, but with similar magnitude of association for non-cardiovascular cancer mortality [men (SHR 1.18, CI 1.15-1.21, p = 5.2×10-46); women 15% (SHR 1.15, CI 1.11-1.18, p = 3.1×10-18)]. Associations with all-cause, incident AMI, and cancer mortality were of greater magnitude at younger than older ages.
Conclusions: RHR is an independent predictor of mortality, with variation by sex, age, and disease. Ischaemic disease appeared a more important driver of this relationship in men, and associations were more pronounced at younger ages.
Competing Interests: I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: SEP acts as a paid consultant to Circle Cardiovascular Imaging Inc., Calgary, Canada and Servier. NCH has received consultancy, lecture fees, and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, Amgen, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, Shire, Radius Health, UCB, Consilient Healthcare, Kyowa Kirin and Internis Pharma. The remaining authors have nothing to disclose. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.