Summary
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1 Sample Definition And Size
The study assessed sauna bathing habits at baseline in a population-based sample of 1,688 participants (mean age 63 years, range 53–74), of whom 51.4% were women. Over a median follow-up of 15.0 years (interquartile range 14.1–15.9), there were 181 fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) events (23,601 person‑years at risk). ([pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30486813/?utm_source=openai))
2 Study Type
This was a long-term prospective cohort study evaluating associations between sauna bathing frequency and duration with CVD mortality, and assessing whether sauna habits improve risk prediction beyond conventional cardiovascular risk factors. ([pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30486813/?utm_source=openai))
3 Conflicts Of Interest
The authors declared that they have no competing interests. ([pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30486813/?utm_source=openai))
4 Results Summary
Key findings include: compared with participants who had one sauna session per week, age‑ and sex‑adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for CVD mortality were 0.71 (95% CI 0.52–0.98) for two to three sessions/week and 0.30 (95% CI 0.14–0.64) for four to seven sessions/week. After adjustment for established CVD risk factors and potential confounders, corresponding HRs were 0.75 (95% CI 0.52–1.08) and 0.23 (95% CI 0.08–0.65), respectively. Cardiovascular mortality rates per 1,000 person‑years were 10.1 (95% CI 7.9–12.9), 7.6 (6.3–9.2), and 2.7 (1.3–5.4) across the one, two to three, and four to seven sessions/week groups, respectively. Addition of sauna frequency to a risk prediction model improved the C‑index by 0.0091 (P = 0.010), −2 log likelihood (P = 0.019), and categorical net reclassification improvement by 4.14% (P = 0.004). ([pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6262976/?utm_source=openai))