Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Completed
Administrative data
| NCT number |
NCT00005419 |
| Other study ID # |
4337 |
| Secondary ID |
R03HL048029 |
| Status |
Completed |
| Phase |
N/A
|
| First received |
May 25, 2000 |
| Last updated |
January 8, 2016 |
| Start date |
March 1992 |
| Est. completion date |
February 1994 |
Study information
| Verified date |
January 2016 |
| Source |
Stanford University |
| Contact |
n/a |
| Is FDA regulated |
No |
| Health authority |
United States: Federal Government |
| Study type |
Observational
|
Clinical Trial Summary
To study the influences of physical activity on the incidence of hypertension,
non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM), and coronary heart disease (CHD), taking into
account the influences of other life-style elements such as body size, cigarette habit,
alcohol consumption habits, and parental history of disease on these same chronic diseases.
Description:
BACKGROUND:
Epidemiologic investigations of the influence of physical activity on the incidence of
specific chronic diseases encounter problems of confounding or interaction with eating
behavior, tobacco use, other social habits, and a host of personal characteristics. These
influences of life styles on chronic diseases are not mutually exclusive, nor do they
operate independently. Rather, they blend, amplifying or diminishing the effects of one
another.
DESIGN NARRATIVE:
The study used data collected since 1960 as part of the College Alumni Health Study -- a
cohort of 50,000 former students who attended Harvard College, 1916-1950, or the University
of Pennsylvania, 1931-1940, and who reported by questionnaire on their health habits and
health status in post-college years through 1988. Over 17,000 Harvard alumni have been
followed from 1962 through 1988 for both non-fatal and fatal chronic diseases. These
predictor (risk factors) and outcome (specific diseases) data were analyzed to test the
hypothesis that different kinds and amounts (frequencies, intensities, durations, and
constancies) of physical activity affect differently the incidence rates of hypertension,
NIDDM, and CHD. Continuities and changes in specific life styles and chronic diseases have
been measured continually through return-mail questionnaires in 1962, 1966, 1972, I977, and
1988. Cause-specific mortality has been monitored continuously over this span of time,
1962-1988. Using the data, the investigators computed relative and attributable risks of
developing hypertension, NIDDM, and CHD that related to alumni patterns of physical
activity, body size, alcohol consumption, cigarette use, and other personal characteristics
and ways-of-living. In this discrete population, they searched for the relative importance
of physical activity and other potential predictors in influencing the occurrence of these
hypertensive-metabolic-atherosclerotic diseases.
