Women with cardiovascular disease (CVD) should get moving. That’s a takeaway from a study in JAMA Network Open, which found that more than half of women with CVD do not do enough physical activity—and the percentage has grown over the last decade.
The researchers analyzed data collected over 10 years (2006 to 2015) from a nationally representative sample of 18,027 women, ages 18 to 75, with established CVD. Sixty-two percent of the women reported suboptimal physical activity in 2014-15, up from 58 percent in 2006-07. (Recommended physical activity was defined as 30 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous exercise, five or more days per week.)
The researchers also found that total health care expenditures were nearly one-third lower among women who met the recommended physical activity guidelines compared to those who did not meet the guidelines, but it’s possible that factors other than exercise accounted for this.
