Physical activity level (PAL) and risk factors of cardiovascular disease in the MASHAD study cohort.

Abstract Background and aim The relationship between physical activity levels (PAL) and the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as anthropometric and biochemical indices and heat shock proteins 27 antibody (anti-HSP-27) concentration, and serum inflammatory markers, was investigated in the MASHAD cohort study. Methods The overall study population consisted of 9,684 subjects (3,858 men, 5,826 women) with a mean age of 47.73 ± 8.08 to 48.87 ± 9.26 years respectively. They were divided into four categories based on their PAL. Biochemical parameters were determined for all participants. Also, serum anti-HSP-27 levels were measured using an in-house enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay method. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the association between the anti-HSP antibody titers and physical activity after adjusting for confounding factors. The level of statistical significance was set at p  Results Several CVD risk factors were associated with the level of PAL including: body mass index, waist hip ratio, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum HDL-C and TG (p   0.05). Conclusion We found that PAL was significantly associated with several established CVD risk factors. Also, the level of anti-HSP-27 was lower in individuals with moderate and high PAL.