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Regular exercise may reduce risk for hypertension in black adults
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Regular exercise may lower the chance that black adults develop hypertension, according to new data from the Jackson Heart Study.
“Evidence shows that hypertension is associated with a disproportionate number of premature disabilities and deaths from [MI], stroke and end-stage renal disease in African Americans than in other racial/ethnic groups in the United States and explains much of the racial disparity in mortality rates,” Keith Diaz, PhD, assistant professor at the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Medical Center, and colleagues wrote. “Accordingly, there is a need to identify modifiable risk factors in African Americans amenable to behavioral intervention to mitigate their risk for the development of hypertension.”
Diaz and colleagues analyzed black adults (n = 1,311) living in Jackson, Mississippi. Participants were without hypertension at baseline.
Physical activity was assessed at baseline as overall, moderate-vigorous or domain-specific (work, active living, household and sport/exercise).
Incident hypertension was defined as systolic BP 140 mm Hg or diastolic BP 90 mm Hg or self-reported antihypertensive medication use at follow-up.
Among participants, 39.2% had poor levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity, 37.1% had intermediate levels and 23.7% had ideal levels. Participants with higher levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity were, on average, younger, more likely to be men, less likely to have diabetes, more likely to have finished high school, less likely to have an annual family income < $50,000 and less likely to smoke. In addition, those with moderate-vigorous physical activity had a higher healthy diet score and had lower BMI and systolic BP, according to the researchers.
At 8 years, 49.6% of participants (n = 650) had incident hypertension. Participants with intermediate and ideal levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity were less likely to develop hypertension (HR for intermediate levels = 0.84; 95% CI, 0.67-1.05; HR for ideal levels = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.58-0.99) vs. poor levels of moderate-vigorous physical activity, they wrote.
A graded, dose-response association was associated with sport/exercise physical activity and risk for incident hypertension, Diaz and colleagues wrote.
No statically significant associations were found between hypertension and overall physical activity or work, active living and household-related physical activities.
“Current public health guidelines recommend [moderate-vigorous physical activity] 3 to 4 days per week for at least 40 minutes per session to reduce the risk of hypertension,” the researchers wrote. “The results of the current study provide evidence which reinforce these recommendations that regular physical activity, particularly sport and/or exercise-related physical activity, is important for the prevention of hypertension among African American men and women.” – by Cassie Homer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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