Do music-related leisure activities influence cardiovascular disease risk, blood pressure and heart rate in older adults?

Background: This study examined the associations between music-related leisure activities (listening to music or playing a musical instrument) and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and heart rate (HR) among community-dwelling Australians aged ≥70 years. Whether these associations varied by gender and age was also explored. Methods: Longitudinal data from individuals enrolled in the ASPREE-XT study were analyzed. Participants had no prior CVD events or known life-limiting health conditions at baseline. Cox proportional-hazard regression and linear mixed models were used. Results: Among 10,591 participants followed for a median of 5.5 years, 780 incident CVD events occurred. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, often listening to music was associated with a 23 % lower risk and always listening to music with an 18 % lower risk of incident CVD events. These associations attenuated after further adjustment for behaviors and clinical measures. Playing a musical instrument was not associated with incident CVD events. Findings did not differ by gender or age group (p-interaction>0.05). No associations were found between music-related activities and changes in SBP, DBP and HR. However, always listening to music was associated with an increase in HR per year among women (adjusted-beta, 0.13). Among people aged ≥74 years, often/always playing musical instruments was associated with an increase in SBP (adjusted-beta, 0.44) and DBP (adjusted-beta, 0.17) per year. Conclusion: Our preliminary findings provide little evidence of a link between listening to music and a reduced CVD risk, other than that through associated behavioral factors.