OBJECTIVETo evaluate the association between resting heart rate (HR) and all-cause death and coronary heart disease (CHD) events in the Chinese cohort.

METHODSData were obtained from the PRC-USA Cooperative Study on Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Epidemiology. Baseline screen surveys were conducted in 1983 and 1984 from people aged 35 to 59 years living in urban or rural areas of Beijing and Guangzhou. Follow-up visits were performed for end point events of all-cause death and first CHD events every two years till 2005. Resting HR was determined from 5 consecutive intervals between R waves on the 12-lead electrocardiogram.

RESULTSA total of 9856 (4805 males) people were included in the study and the mean follow up duration was 16.2 years. There were 1523 deaths, including 200 CHD events during the follow up period. Mean resting HR was 67.9 beat per minute (bpm) in men and 71.6 bpm in women respectively which had a trend to increase with aging. Cox Proportional Hazards model indicated the relative risk of all-cause death increased constantly with the increase of HR percentile after control of age, fasting glucose, serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. With HR 60-89 bpm as control group, the relative risk and 95% confidence interval in group HR < 50 bpm, 50 - 59 bpm, 90 - 99 bpm and > or = 100 bpm were 0.76 (0.49 - 1.17), 0.87 (0.75 - 1.02), 1.33 (1.06 - 1.68), 1.48 (1.03 - 2.14) respectively. However there was no significant correlation between HR and CHD events in studied population.

CONCLUSIONThe risk of total death increased significantly in people with HR > or = 90 bpm suggesting higher resting heart rate might be an independent risk factor for all-cause death in the Chinese population.