In elderly, smoking and heart rate predict all-cause mortality
In elderly men from Finland, The Netherlands and Italy, age, smoking and heart rate were positively associated with excess 10-year all-cause mortality. The association of systolic blood pressure with all-cause mortality was marginally significant at 10 years. HDL-cholesterol and body mass index were significantly inversely related to all-cause mortality after 10 years of follow-up but these associations were no longer significant after excluding early deaths (during the first 5 years of follow-up).These results suggest that smoking and heart rate (an indicator of physical activity and fitness) remain useful risk factors in prediction of all-cause mortality up to old age.