Key result
Recreational tennis is associated with significantly lower clustered cardiometabolic risk vs. other physical activity.
Why the study?
Recent evidence highlights racquet sports as being associated with a substantially reduced risk of CVD mortality, but the relationship with clustered cardiometabolic risk and arterial stiffness in recreational tennis players was not evaluated.
Cross-Sectional (n=88)
No
Tennis-linked lower cardiometabolic risk may favor it over other activities; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective trials before practice change.
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.
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Roche et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Cardiometabolic risk in healthy adults (n=88). Recreational tennis participation vs. Habitually active non-tennis players was evaluated on Clustered cardiometabolic risk score 1 (CMR1) (p=0.03). Recreational tennis participation was associated with significantly lower clustered cardiometabolic risk compared to other habitual physical activity (CMR1 score -0.48 vs 0.50, P=0.03).
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