Relationship between Physical Activity and Plasma Fibrinogen Concentrations in Adults without Chronic Diseases

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the relationship between regular physical activity, as assessed by accelerometer and 7-day physical activity recall (PAR), and plasma fibrinogen concentrations. METHODS: A cross-sectional study in a previously established cohort of healthy subjects was performed. This study analyzed 1284 subjects who were included in the EVIDENT study (mean age 55.0±13.6 years; 60.90% women). Fibrinogen concentrations were measured in blood plasma. Physical activity was assessed with a 7-day PAR (metabolic equivalents (METs)/hour/week) and GT3X ActiGraph accelerometer (counts/minute) for 7 days. RESULTS: Physical exercise, which was evaluated with both an accelerometer (Median: 237.28 counts/minute) and 7-day PAR (Median: 8 METs/hour/week). Physical activity was negatively correlated with plasma fibrinogen concentrations, which was evaluated by counts/min (r = −0.100; p<0.001) and METs/hour/week (r = −0.162; p<0.001). In a multiple linear regression analysis, fibrinogen concentrations of the subjects who performed more physical activity (third tertile of count/minute and METs/hour/week) respect to subjects who performed less (first tertile), maintained statistical significance after adjustments for age and others confounders (β = −0.03; p = 0.046 and β = −0.06; p<0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity, as assessed by accelerometer and 7-day PAR, was negatively associated with plasma fibrinogen concentrations. This relation is maintained in subjects who performed more exercise even after adjusting for age and other confounders.