Association of Physical Activity and arterial stiffness indices:
In the current analysis, we also examined the relationship between AS
and PA as a practical approach to preventing CVD, which is correlated
with lower cardiovascular risk and mortality (49, 50). Our findings
showed that PA was inversely related to cAIx, but not PWV, while this
correlation is not clinically relevant. In line with our results,
cross-sectional studies reporting the association of PA with cAIx and
PWV; the authors reported an inverse relationship between PA and cAIx in
hypertension and general participants below age 60 years (27, 51). A
randomized control trial by Suboc et al. has shown that PA for twelve
weeks had no significant effect on AS measured by PWV (52). However,
another investigation displayed a negative association between low-PA
and PWV (53); while Gomez-Marcos et al. found a positive relationship
between low-PA and PWV (54). Several reasons can explain this
discrepancy in the results; the methods used to evaluate PA (objective
measures, different types of questionnaires), the characteristics of the
sample, such as age and sex, the intensity of PA, and the season of the
year.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the
association of both PWV and cAIx with multiple body composition
parameters (novel and traditional), bioelecÂtrical impedance-derived
parameters, lipid profiles, and PA. However, several limitations should
be considered in the interpretation of our results. The associations
which were assessed in the present study were based on cross-sectional
designs, and therefore the cause-effect relationship is not clear.
Finally, our study performed only on the Iranian population, which may
be limited to the applicability of the results to other regions and
ethnic groups. AS is likely to be influenced by Ethnicity and heredity
(55), and anthropometric indices have various power to predict
cardiovascular risk in different populations.