Sauna bathing is associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality and improves risk prediction in men and women: a prospective cohort study
Laukkanen T, Kunutsor SK, Khan H, Willeit P, Zaccardi F, Laukkanen JA
BMC medicine · 44 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Cohort study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Clinical events such as disease or death
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Nonprofit
- Foundation for Cardiovascular Research
- University or hospital
- Itä-Suomen Yliopisto
- Nonprofit
- Sydäntutkimussäätiö
Based on 3 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2018-11-25 · BMC Med · vol. 16 · issue 1 · p. 219
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Cited
- 62 citations · more than 84% of similar papers · 1.7× the field average
- References
- 65 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Thermoregulation and physiological responses · Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements · Body Contouring and Surgery
- Keywords
- Medicine, Prospective cohort study, Bathing, Cohort study, Cohort, Gerontology, Demography, Environmental health, Internal medicine, Pathology
- MeSH
- humans, cardiovascular diseases, steam bath, proportional hazards models, risk factors, prospective studies, risk reduction behavior, aged, middle aged, female, male
6 authors
From FI, GB, US, AT
- Tanjaniina LaukkanenUniversity of Eastern Finland; Central Finland Health Care District
- Setor K. KunutsorUniversity Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust; Southmead Hospital; National Institute for Health and Care Research; University of Bristol
- Hassan KhanEmory University
- Peter WilleitInnsbruck Medical University; University of Cambridge
- Francesco ZaccardiUniversity of Leicester; Leicester General Hospital
- Jari A. Laukkanen · correspondingUniversity of Eastern Finland; Central Finland Health Care District; University of Jyväskylä
Abstract
Background
Previous evidence indicates that sauna bathing is related to a reduced risk of fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in men. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sauna habits and CVD mortality in men and women, and whether adding information on sauna habits to conventional cardiovascular risk factors is associated with improvement in prediction of CVD mortality risk.
Methods
Sauna bathing habits were assessed at baseline in a sample of 1688 participants (mean age 63; range 53-74 years), of whom 51.4% were women. Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated to investigate the relationships of frequency and duration of sauna use with CVD mortality.
Results
A total of 181 fatal CVD events occurred during a median follow-up of 15.0 years (interquartile range, 14.1-15.9). The risk of CVD mortality decreased linearly with increasing sauna sessions per week with no threshold effect. In age- and sex-adjusted analysis, compared with participants who had one sauna bathing session per week, HRs (95% CIs) for CVD mortality were 0.71 (0.52 to 0.98) and 0.30 (0.14 to 0.64) for participants with two to three and four to seven sauna sessions per week, respectively. After adjustment for established CVD risk factors, potential confounders including physical activity, socioeconomic status, and incident coronary heart disease, the corresponding HRs (95% CIs) were 0.75 (0.52 to 1.08) and 0.23 (0.08 to 0.65), respectively. The duration of sauna use (minutes per week) was inversely associated with CVD mortality in a continuous manner. Addition of information on sauna bathing frequency to a CVD mortality risk prediction model containing established risk factors was associated with a C-index change (0.0091; P = 0.010), difference in - 2 log likelihood (P = 0.019), and categorical net reclassification improvement (4.14%; P = 0.004).
Conclusions
Higher frequency and duration of sauna bathing are each strongly, inversely, and independently associated with fatal CVD events in middle-aged to elderly males and females. The frequency of sauna bathing improves the prediction of the long-term risk for CVD mortality.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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