Physical activity associated with reduced likelihood of adverse CV outcomes, mortality
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Increased physical activity was significantly associated with reduced likelihood of adverse heart events and mortality, according to findings presented at the European Society of Cardiology preventive cardiology meeting.
“Previous research showed that improvements in physical activity are beneficial to health. However, those studies were performed in the general population,” Esmée A. Bakker, PhD student at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, said in a press release. “In our study, we were interested to see if there were similar effects in individuals with cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.”
The researchers analyzed 88,320 individuals from the population-based LifeLines Cohort Study who underwent a physical exam and completed questionnaires at baseline and 4 years after enrollment regarding medical history and lifestyle including exercise. Participants were categorized into large reduction, moderate reduction, no change, moderate improvement and large improvement based on activity levels at both intervals.
The primary outcome measures were occurrence of CVD or death.
In the cohort, 21% of participants (mean age, 55 years) had high BP (44%), high cholesterol (65%) and/or diabetes (12%) at baseline and 79% of participants (mean age, 43 years) did not have CV risk factors or CVD (P < .001).
After adjustments, participants with moderate to large improvements in physical activity had a 30% decrease in likelihood for developing CVD or mortality during the mean 7-year follow-up compared with participants with no change in physical activity level. Participants with large physical activity reductions had 40% higher risk for CVD or mortality compared with participants with no change in physical activity level after adjustment.
According to Bakker, walking is a good beginner activity for those who are mainly sedentary. For those already hitting the recommended amount of aerobic physical activity, she recommended increasing time of exercise by 10 minutes per day or increasing the overall intensity.
“Our study suggests that to prevent heart attacks and strokes and boost longevity, healthy individuals should maintain their physical activity levels, while those with risk factors need to become more active,” Bakker said in the release. “The associations we found were even more pronounced in people who were relatively sedentary at the start of the study, indicating that inactive people have the most to gain.”
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Bakker EA, et al. Young Investigators Award population science and public health. Presented at: European Society of Cardiology Preventive Cardiology 2021; April 15-17, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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