Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Middle-aged and Older Women

Abstract

The authors investigated the relation between physical activity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women by following 1,564 University of Pennsylvania alumnae (mean age, 45.5 years), initially free of CVD, from 1962 until 1993. Energy expenditure was estimated from the daily number of flights of stairs climbed and blocks walked as well as the sports played and was categorized into approximate thirds (p for trend = 0.45). Only walking was found to be inversely related to CVD risk (p for trend = 0.054). Compared with women who walked p = 0.023) between body mass index and physical activity on CVD risk was observed, with an inverse association only for leaner (Am J Epidemiol 1999; 150: 408–16.