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Journal of the American Heart Association

Activity’s link to heart disease risk differed by age

A 20% lower relative risk of coronary heart disease was linked to about 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity weekly in older adults versus 330 minutes in middle-aged adults.

Paper by Jiajin Chen, Zihang Zhong, Xin Chen, +3 more authorsYan Wang · Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital of Xiamen University
Graphical abstract from Journal of the American Heart Association
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Graphical abstract. Chen et al.

Our read

Populations
Studied:
Cohort study of 80,243 UK Biobank adults, median 7.88 years (Dose-response)
What changed:
Heart disease risk was 20% lower at about 60 moderate-to-vigorous minutes weekly in older adults versus 330 in middle-aged adults
The catch:
More-active participants may have had better underlying health, contributing to their lower heart disease risk
In the record:
The 3,331st paper on physical activity with results in people; 7,029 on record in all. Its result on coronary artery disease agrees with 7 of 9 other findings on record; 2 point the other way.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Among 80,243 UK Biobank participants, 57.3% women and averaging 61.54 years old, an observational study examined activity recorded by wrist-worn movement sensors. It tracked coronary heart disease, which affects the arteries supplying the heart. Participants included 31,663 adults aged 65 or older and 48,580 under 65.

Over a median follow-up of 7.88 years, 3,764 coronary heart disease events occurred. A 20% lower relative risk was associated with about 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity weekly in older adults, versus 330 minutes in middle-aged adults. Meeting the guideline of at least 150 minutes weekly was linked to lower risk in both groups, with a stronger association in older adults.

Why it matters

Physical activity recommendations set the same weekly target across ages despite age-related differences in exercise capacity. The authors suggested that the findings may help encourage older adults to be active.

Caveats

More-active participants may also have had better underlying health, which could have contributed to their lower heart disease risk. The findings may not apply equally to populations younger than these UK Biobank adults.

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