{"id":138294,"date":"2024-04-09T09:51:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T13:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/?p=138294"},"modified":"2024-04-09T09:51:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T13:51:59","slug":"huddle-cross-sectional-study-finds-large-gap-between-hypertension-prevalence-and-awareness-among-former-nfl-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/?p=138294","title":{"rendered":"HUDDLE: Cross-sectional study finds large gap between hypertension prevalence and awareness among former NFL athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Points:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Little is known about the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors or disease in former professional athletes.\u00a0 Gaps may exist between the awareness and prevalence of CVD in this population.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This cross-sectional study of National Football League (NFL) alumni who participated in cardiovascular screening events found that 90% had HTN, 46% had an abnormal EKG, and 62% had structural abnormalities on TTE.\u00a0 Overall, 84% were found to have an elevated BP but only 38% had a self-reported a history of HTN.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There may be a significant knowledge gap between self-awareness of CVD and actual CVD prevalence among retired NFL athletes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Estimates of cardiovascular risk factors and disease (CVD) prevalence among retired elite athletes are lacking.\u00a0 They are a special population, as they may be less likely to be screened or seek screening because of perceived healthy lifestyle habits, even though they may be at significant risk for CVD.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On April 7, 2024, the principal results of the \u201cPrevalence of Cardiovascular Disease and Risk Factors among NFL Alumni and their Family Members: The HUDDLE Study\u201d were presented at ACC Scientific Sessions 2024 with simultaneous publication in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0735109724009884?via%3Dihub\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Journal of the American College of Cardiology<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 The purpose of this study was to assess CVD and risk factor prevalence and awareness in a sample of former NFL players, coaches, and families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This was an observational cross-sectional study that included former NFL players or coaches and family members aged 50 or order who participated in one of eight CVD screening events, which included a health history questionnaire, cardiac testing with EKG, blood pressure (BP) measurement, and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), as well as an interactive educational session.\u00a0 Hypertension (HTN) was defined as a measured BP &gt;130\/80 in a seated, resting position, with additional readings taken during the session at the staff\u2019s discretion and averaged if \u201cwhite-coat\u201d HTN was suspected.\u00a0 Investigators prespecified the definitions of clinically relevant EKG abnormalities and used American Society of Echocardiography guidelines to define abnormal TTEs.\u00a0 Test results were de-identified and analyzed at a central core lab.\u00a0 At 30 days, a phone visit was held to discuss results and make follow-up recommendations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A total of 498 participants were included in the analysis, all of whom completed the 30 day phone visit. Of these, 285 were former NFL players and 213 were former coaches or family members.\u00a0 The average age was 63 years and 63% were Black.\u00a0 Nearly 90% for former players either had a history of HTN or had a measured BP above threshold, 36% had an abnormal EKG, 62% had an abnormal finding on TTE, and 1 had thoracic aneurysm identified that underwent subsequent surgical repair.\u00a0 Of all participants, 80% reported no history of HTN but had a BP above threshold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This study had multiple limitations.\u00a0 Histories were self-reported with risk for recall bias, and BPs were recorded at a single encounter.\u00a0 Most participants were from the southern US, limiting generalizability.\u00a0 There was no comparison group or long term follow up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Michael Amponsah of Banner Boswell Medical Center in Peoria, AZ concluded: \u201cThe surprisingly high prevalence of CVD and risk factors in this population\u2026signifies a need to increase awareness of CVD and develop sustainable strategies to ameliorate risk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points: Little is known about the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors or disease in former professional athletes.\u00a0 Gaps may exist between the awareness and prevalence of CVD in this population.\u00a0 This cross-sectional study of National Football League (NFL) alumni who participated in cardiovascular screening events found that 90% had HTN, 46% had an abnormal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40603,"featured_media":138296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[888,8],"tags":[889,45,47,185],"ppma_author":[1029],"class_list":{"0":"post-138294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-acc-2024","8":"category-news","9":"tag-acc-2024","10":"tag-conference","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-news","13":"author-leah-kosyakovsky"},"authors":[{"term_id":1029,"user_id":40603,"is_guest":0,"slug":"leah-kosyakovsky","display_name":"Leah Kosyakovsky","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/864bde69f6f1f80e91e4a97f0a0ba8daa64c2bb702be09ed787444c7dfa045bb?s=96&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/40603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138297,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138294\/revisions\/138297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138294"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiologynownews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=138294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}