In the general population, fitness and physical activity demonstrate inverse associations with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD), as well as in individuals with elevated genetic risk for these diseases. Researchers estimated associations of grip strength, objective and subjective physical activity, and CV fitness with CV events and all-cause death in a large cohort of 502,635 individuals (median follow-up 6.1 years). They further examined these associations in individuals with different genetic burden by stratifying individuals based on their genetic risk scores for coronary heart disease (CHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF). They found:

• Grip strength, physical activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness showed inverse associations with incident CV events.
• Higher grip strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with lower risk of incident CHD and AF in each genetic risk score group.
• High levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with 49% lower risk for CHD (HR, 0.51) and 60% lower risk for AF (HR, 0.40) among those at high genetic risk for these diseases.