1. ¹Department of Public Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science, Sendai, Japan
2. ²Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science, Sendai, Japan
3. ³Department of Drug Development and Clinical Evaluation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science, Sendai, Japan
4. ⁴Department of Environmental Health Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science, Sendai, Japan
5. ⁵Ohasama Hospital, Iwate, Japan
6. ⁶Tohoku University 21st Century COE Program "Comprehensive Research and Education Center for Planning of Drug Development and Clinical Evaluation"

Correspondence: Dr. Atsushi Hozawa, Department of Public Health, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan E-mail: hozawa@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp

^*This work was supported by Grants for Scientific Research (13470085, 13671095, 14657600, and 1437021) and for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)Research (1410301) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; research grants from Junkanki-byo Itaku Kenkyu (11C-5; 1999, 2000, 2001); research grant (2000, 2001) from the Japan Atherosclerosis Prevention Fund; a grant from the Japan Cardiovascular Research Foundation (2000, 2001 and 2002); and by a Health Science Research Grant on Health Services (H12-Iryo-002, 2000 and 2001; H13-21 Seiki [Seikatsu]-19, 2001; H13-Kenko-006, 2001) from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan.

Received 30 April 2004; Revised 14 June 2004; Accepted 14 June 2004.

Abstract

Background: Recently, the advantages of self-measurement of blood pressure (BP) at home have been recognized. The same advantages could also be applicable to resting heart rate (HR) values assessed at home using a device designed for home BP measurement. However, there have been no studies investigating whether home HR values predict the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. We therefore investigated the usefulness of HR values in predicting cardiovascular mortality using a device that allowed self-measurement of BP and HR at home.

Methods: The association between the home-measured resting HR and the 10-year risk of cardiovascular mortality was examined in 1780 Japanese individuals 40 years of age who had no significant arrhythmias. A Cox proportional hazards model that adjusted for major risk factors was used.

Results: An increase of 5 beats/min in the morning home HR measurement was associated with a 17% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality (95% confidence interval 5% to 30%). This relationship was also statistically significant after adjustment for home BP values. Even when home-measured systolic BP was within the normal range (<135 mm Hg), subjects with HR 70 beats/min had a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (relative hazard 2.16, 95% confidence interval 1.21 to 3.85) than those with normal systolic BP and HR values.

Conclusions: Self-measurement of HR at home, together with self-measurement of BP, is a simple method of providing useful clinical information for assessing cardiovascular risk.