ORIGINAL ARTICLE  SPORT CARDIOLOGY 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2021 October;61(10):1393-1403

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.20.11674-8

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Clustered cardiometabolic risk and arterial stiffness of recreational adult tennis players

Denise M. ROCHE ✉, Matthew JACKSON, Farzad AMIRABDOLLAHIAN, Omid KHAIYAT

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence highlights racquet sports as being associated with a substantially reduced risk of CVD mortality. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate clustered cardiometabolic risk (CMR) and arterial stiffness in recreational adult tennis players.
METHODS: Forty-three recreational tennis players (T) and a matched group of 45 healthy, active non-tennis (NT) players, mean age (±SEM) 41.6±1.8 years participated in this cross-sectional comparative study. Measurements included emerging and traditional CMR factors with pulse wave analysis/velocity utilised to assess indexes of arterial stiffness. Clustered cardiometabolic risk was calculated using two composites: CMR1 (central aortic systolic blood pressure, carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, percentage body fat, HDL-C and maximal oxygen uptake) and CMR2 (brachial systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, TC:HDL-C, percentage body fat, HbA1c and maximal oxygen uptake).
RESULTS: Analysis of covariance, controlling for age, revealed T had significantly lower (healthier) CMR1 scores than NT (EMM±SEM, T: -0.48±0.3 vs. NT: 0.50±0.3, P=0.03). Similarly, T also demonstrated lower clustered CMR2 scores (EMM, T: -0.66±0.4 vs. NT: 0.59±0.4, P=0.04). Augmentation index of the pulse pressure wave, normalised to heart rate 75 bpm (AIx75), was lower in T vs NT (EMM, T: 10.7±1.7% vs. NT: 12.7±1.6%; P=0.03), when controlling for age and gender.
CONCLUSIONS: Tennis appears to be a suitable and effective physical activity modality for targeting cardiometabolic and vascular health and should be more frequently advocated in physical activity promotion strategies.

KEY WORDS: Tennis; Vascular stiffness; Cardiovascular diseases; Pulse wave analysis; Metabolic syndrome