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Mok Y, Ishigami J, Sang Y, et al. Clinically recognized varicose veins and physical function in older individuals: the ARIC study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021;doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab287.
Mok, Y., Ishigami, J., Sang, Y., Kucharska-Newton, A. M., Salameh, M., Schrack, J. A., Palta, P., Coresh, J., Windham, B. G., Lutsey, P. L., Folsom, A. R., & Matsushita, K. (2021). Clinically recognized varicose veins and physical function in older individuals: the ARIC study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, . https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab287
Mok, Yejin, et al. "Clinically recognized varicose veins and physical function in older individuals: the ARIC study." The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences vol. (2021). doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab287
Mok Y, Ishigami J, Sang Y, Kucharska-Newton AM, Salameh M, Schrack JA, Palta P, Coresh J, Windham BG, Lutsey PL, Folsom AR, Matsushita K. Clinically recognized varicose veins and physical function in older individuals: the ARIC study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021 Oct 04; doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab287. Epub 2021 Oct 04. PMID: 34606610.
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J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021 Oct 04; doi: 10.1093/gerona/glab287. Epub 2021 Oct 04.

Clinically recognized varicose veins and physical function in older individuals: the ARIC study.

The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences

Yejin Mok, Junichi Ishigami, Yingying Sang, Anna M Kucharska-Newton, Maya Salameh, Jennifer A Schrack, Priya Palta, Josef Coresh, B Gwen Windham, Pamela L Lutsey, Aaron R Folsom, Kunihiro Matsushita

Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
  2. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
  3. Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
  4. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
  5. Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY.
  6. Department of Medicine, The Memory Impairment and Neurodegenerative Dementia (MIND) Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA.
  7. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

PMID: 34606610 DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glab287

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although a few studies reported an association between varicose veins and physical function, this potentially bi-directional association has not been systematically evaluated in the general population.

METHODS: In 5,580 participants (aged 71-90 years) from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, varicose veins were identified in outpatient and inpatient administrative data prior to (prevalent cases) and after (incident cases) visit 5 (2011-2013). Physical function was evaluated by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB, score ranging from 0-12). We evaluated 1) cross-sectional association between prevalent varicose veins and physical function, 2) association of prevalent varicose veins with subsequent changes in physical function from visit 5 to visits 6 (2016-2017) and 7 (2018-2019), 3) association of physical function at visit 5 with incident varicose veins during a median follow-up of 3.6 years (105 incident varicose veins among 5,350 participants without prevalent cases at baseline).

RESULTS: At baseline, varicose veins were recognized in 230 (4.1%) participants and cross-sectionally associated with reduced physical function. Longitudinally, prevalent varicose veins were not significantly associated with a decline in SPPB over time. In contrast, a low SPPB ≤6 was associated with a greater incidence of varicose veins compared to SPPB ≥10 (adjusted hazard ratio 2.13 [95% CI 1.19, 3.81]) .

CONCLUSION: In community-dwelling older adults, varicose veins and low physical function were associated cross-sectionally. Longitudinally, low physical function was a risk factor for incident varicose veins, but not vice versa. Our findings suggest an etiological contribution of low physical function to incident varicose veins.

© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Keywords: epidemiology; physical function; varicose veins

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