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Episodic physical, sexual activity linked with short-term risk for acute cardiac events
Dahabreh I. JAMA. 2011;305:1225-1233.
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In a recent study, episodic physical and sexual activity was found to elevate the risk for MI and sudden cardiac death in the short term, although this risk decreased substantially with increased exposure to physical activity.
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers Issa J. Dahabreh, MD, and Jessica K. Paulus, ScD, identified studies from database searches that examined the effect of episodic physical activity (n=10), sexual activity (n=3) and a combination of both (n=1) on acute cardiac events, including MI, acute coronary syndrome and sudden cardiac death.
They found a greater risk for MI with both episodic physical activity (RR=3.45; 95% CI, 2.33-5.13) and sexual activity (RR=2.70; 95% CI, 1.48-4.91), whereas episodic physical activity alone correlated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (RR=4.98; 95% CI, 1.47-16.91). However, the effect of these triggers was transient due to the infrequency of exposure to both forms of activity. Specifically, the absolute risk increase for MI linked with 1 hour of additional physical or sexual activity per week was 2 to 3 per 10,000 person-years and 1 per 10,000 person-years for sudden cardiac death.
Furthermore, for each additional time per week an individual was habitually exposed to physical activity, the RR for MI decreased by roughly 45% (P=.001) and the RR for sudden cardiac death decreased by 30% (P=.05). Studies regarding sexual activity did not provide adequate data for a similar analysis.
These findings, Dahabreh and Paulus said, “should not be misinterpreted as indicating a net harm of physical or sexual activity; instead, they demonstrate that these exposures are associated with a temporary short-term increase in the risk of acute cardiac events.”
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