Prospective Study of Health in Runners and Walkers

February 26, 2016 updated by: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
To compare rates of coronary heart disease (CHD), cancer, total mortality and exercise injuries in 68,000 runners and 68,000 walkers during four years of surveillance

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

BACKGROUND:

Current government physical fitness guidelines state that: 1) the majority of the health benefits from physical activity can be obtained by walking two miles briskly on most days of the week; and 2) the health benefits of physical activity depend principally on the total amount of activity rather than the intensity of the activity. Nevertheless, there are currently no prospective epidemiological studies extant, designed specifically to directly contrast the health benefits and costs of moderate exercise (e.g., walking) versus vigorous exercise (e.g., running).

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Before the start of the study, 233,000 person-years of follow-up had been accumulated in 56,000 runners (between 1991 and 1997). The runners were resurveyed in 1997 along with 68,000 walkers. The walkers were also solicited through the publication of the questionnaire in Walking magazine followed by a direct mailing of the questionnaire to 425,000 subscribers. Total and cause-specific mortality will be determined from the National Death Index; fatal and nonfatal cancers will be identified from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) and 46 state registries; nonfatal coronary heart disease and injuries will be determined from questionnaires. Survival analyses will be used to test whether runners have greater reduction in heart disease, total mortality, and cancer per unit of exercise. Exercise-related injuries from walking and running will also be examined. Power calculations suggest that detection of differences between runners and walkers, as small as 11% for total mortality, 16% for CHD, 12% for total cancers, and 36% for breast cancer, will be possible. The differences will be adjusted for weekly kilocalories expended by walking and running, for walking and running distance, and for time spent on each activity to test whether these variables account for differences in disease rates between walkers and runners.

By the end of the study, 517,000 person years in 68,000 runners (between 1991 and 2001) will be available for analysis. Survival analysis will be used to test for a dose-response relationship between running mileage and CHD and cancer risk, and whether this relationship is affected by running intensity, running frequency, running history, gender, adiposity, age or medication use. Using conservative rates (25% below published values), statistical power calculations suggest that detectable reduction in coronary heart disease risk as small as 0.71% per mile will be possible, which is far below the estimated reduction from other published studies (2.1%). Additionally, a detectable reduction in breast cancer risk as small as 1.5% per mile run in women is calculated, which is below the 1.7% reduction in risk estimated from other published data.

The study completion date listed in this record was obtained from the "End Date" entered in the Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS) record.

Study Type

Observational

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 100 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

No eligibility criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Investigators

  • Paul Williams, University of California Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 1998

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2004

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 25, 2000

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 25, 2000

First Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2000

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 29, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2016

Last Verified

July 1, 2005

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 5011
  • R01HL058621 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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