February 19, 2024
4 minute read
Important points:
- Data shows that women live longer than men when they report the same amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
- Data suggest gender-specific benefits of exercise.
Compared to men, women are less likely to die from any cause or cardiovascular-specific causes if they perform the same amount of leisure-time physical activity each week, suggesting that exercise has gender-specific benefits. The researchers reported that.
The study analyzed participant-reported physical activity data from more than 400,000 U.S. adults linked to death record data and found that both men and women achieved peak survival benefits with 300 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise. It is shown that. However, the same amount of regular exercise reduced mortality by 24% for women and by 18% for men.
“When recommendations are the same for men and women, the question always arises: Should they be?” Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FASPC, She is vice director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, chair of preventive cardiology at the Smit Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, and president of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology. “What are they? [physical activity] Recommendations based on? Is there evidence? Do you have data? There are often assumptions and no data specific to women. ”
Assessment of physical activity and mortality data
In a prospective study published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Gulati et al. analyzed data from 412,413 U.S. adults with no history of CVD, no limitations in activities of daily living, and who provided survey data on leisure-time physical activity as part of the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey. The average age of participants was 44 years, 54.7% were female, 14.4% were black, and 18.4% were Hispanic. The number of minutes of aerobic exercise per week was calculated by multiplying the participant-reported frequency of activity (numbers per week) by the duration of the activity.
“To account for intensity, the total weighted value for moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity (MVPA) was obtained by summing the duration of moderate- and vigorous-intensity and multiplying by 2,” researchers are writing.
Researchers examined sex-specific associations between measures of physical activity (frequency, duration, intensity, type) and all-cause and CV mortality from 1997 to 2019.
During 4,911,178 person-years of follow-up, there were 39,935 all-cause deaths, including 11,670 CV deaths. Overall, 32.5% of women and 43.1% of men regularly engaged in aerobic exercise. However, all major indicators of physical activity were more frequent in men, with rates of regular moderate physical activity being 10.3% and 15.2% for women and men, respectively, and rates of vigorous physical activity being the same for women and men. In men, the rates were 28.3% and 38.9%, respectively. Each male.
Compared to inactivity, leisure-time physical activity was associated with a 24% lower risk of all-cause mortality in women (HR = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.73-0.8) and a 15% lower risk of all-cause mortality in men. % decreased (HR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.82-0.89; Wald test, F = 12; P interaction < .001).
Men reached a maximum survival benefit of HR 0.81 with 300 minutes per week of MVPA, while women achieved a similar benefit with 140 minutes per week and continued to reach a maximum survival benefit of HR 0.76 with 300 minutes per week. . , according to the researchers.
Sex-specific findings were similar for cardiovascular mortality (Wald test, F = 20.1; P interaction < .001) was consistent across all measures of aerobic and muscle strengthening activity (Wald test, F = 6.7; P interaction = .009).
“We already knew there were sex differences in fitness, but we hypothesized that men and women respond differently to exercise,” Gulati said in an interview. “Although women tend to have less athletic performance than men, they benefit at least as much, if not more. Additionally, women are disproportionately more likely to exercise than men,” she says. We also know that there are different types of muscle fibers. These muscle fibers can respond differently to strength training. Women also tend to have less muscle and more body fat on average than men. Yes, there may be something to do with exercise efficiency and improvements in both muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in women.”
Gulati said this data should prompt clinicians to consider more tailored recommendations for physical activity and not be too rigid with guidelines for certain patients, especially those who are sedentary. He said that it suggests.
“Even though women exercise less than men, their heart rate increases to a greater extent,” Gulati says. “We’re not saying we don’t want women to exercise. That’s absolutely not true. But when we’re with patients and we talk about guidelines like getting 150 minutes of exercise a week, many The patient goes home without doing anything. It’s discouraging, and they say, “That’s not happening,” and leave. We need to rebuild the movement. I had progressive gains from exercise until I reached the 300 minutes per week mark. We need to “dose” exercise and physical activity in ways that are meaningful to patients. ”
Gender-specific benefits of exercise
In a related editorial published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Wael A. Jaber, and Dr. Erica Hutt, The authors, from the Cleveland Clinic’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiac Imaging, wrote that the gender-specific effects demonstrated in women could influence gender-specific exercise recommendations in major societal guidelines.
“This may encourage less physically active women to engage in more leisure-time physical activity, given the more achievable goals for women who believe time is a barrier to exercise.” ” Jaber and Hutt wrote. “Furthermore, physically active women may be motivated to increase their exercise engagement, given the significant reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by up to 24%.”
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For more information:
Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, FASPC, Please contact martha.gulati@csmc.edu.
