Abstract
Objective: The Walking Impairment Questionnaire (WIQ) measures self-reported walking distance, walking speed, and stair-climbing ability in men and women with lower extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD). We determined whether poorer WIQ scores are associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in individuals with and without PAD. Methods: We identified 1048 men and women with and without PAD from Chicago-area medical centers. Participants completed the WIQ at baseline and were monitored for a median of 4.5 years. Cox proportional hazards models were used to relate baseline WIQ scores with death, adjusting for age, sex, race, the ankle-brachial index (ABI), comorbidities, and other covariates. Results: During follow-up, 461 participants (44.0%) died, including 158 deaths from CVD. PAD participants in the lowest baseline quartile of the WIQ stair-climbing scores had higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-2.66, P =.02) and higher CVD mortality (hazard ratio, 3.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.30-7.47, P =.01) compared with those with the highest baseline WIQ stair-climbing score. Among PAD participants, there were no significant associations of lower baseline WIQ distance or speed scores with rates of all-cause mortality (P =.20 and P =.07 for trend, respectively) or CVD mortality (P =.51 and P =.33 for trend, respectively). Among non-PAD participants there were no significant associations of lower baseline WIQ stair-climbing, distance, or speed score with rates of all-cause mortality (P =.94, P =.69, and P =.26, for trend, respectively) or CVD mortality (P =.28, P =.68, and P =.78, for trend, respectively). Conclusions: Among participants with PAD, lower WIQ stair-climbing scores are associated with higher all-cause and CVD mortality, independently of the ABI and other covariates.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1662-1673.e2 |
Journal | Journal of Vascular Surgery |
Volume | 55 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2012 |
Funding
This study was supported by grants K12-HL083790 , R01-HL083064 , R01-HL64739 , and R01-HL71223 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , and by grant RR-00048 from the National Center for Research Resources, National Institutes of Health . This study was also supported by the National Institute on Aging.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- Surgery