MedWire News: Study findings reveal that patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) often do not comply with physical activity recommendations, and are less likely to do so than individuals without CHD.
Only 32% of patients with CHD met moderate physical activity recommendations, while just 22% met vigorous activity recommendations, and 40% met total physical activity recommendations, report Guixiang Zhao and colleagues from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The researchers studied data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compare compliance with national and/or American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guidelines for physical activity in US adults with and without CHD.
The analysis, results of which are reported in the American Journal of Cardiology, included a total of 297,145 participants aged 18 years and over.
In the 24,496 participants with CHD, age-standardized prevalence of meeting physical activity recommendations tended to be lower in those who were aged 70 years or older, obese (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2), and smoked, and higher among those with educational levels greater than or equal to college graduate.
Unadjusted odds ratios for adults with CHD who met total, moderate, and vigorous physical activity recommendations relative to individuals without CHD were 0.61, 0.76, and 0.45, respectively.
"These odds ratios were attenuated slightly but remained significant after adjustment for demographic variables or after further adjustment for diabetes mellitus and physical activity limitations," the team writes.
The authors say they could not assess the reasons why so many patients with CHD do not exercise or, if they do, fail to achieve the recommended physical activity levels.
"Additional studies are needed to further investigate the severity of CHD in association with contradictions or exercise barriers that prevent patients with heart disease from engaging in appropriate levels of physical activity and to learn more about physical activity counseling for patients with CHD," Zhao and co-authors conclude.
Free abstract
