The impact of physical activity on mortality in patients with high blood pressure: a systematic review
Journal of Hypertension, 06/29/2012
Rossi A et al. – Regular physical activity is beneficial for reducing mortality in patients with high blood pressure (BP). More research is needed to establish the impact of specific kinds of physical activity and whether any differences exist between sexes.
Methods- An extensive search was conducted by two independent authors using Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library electronic databases (between 1985 and January 2012) and manual search from the reference list of relevant articles.
- Inclusion criteria were as follows: longitudinal design with minimum 1–year follow–up; hypertensive status of the cohort was indicated; and BP, physical activity, and mortality were measured.
- Six articles evaluating a combined total of 48448 men and 47625 women satisfied the inclusion criteria.
- Cardiovascular and/or all–cause mortality were shown to be inversely related to physical activity in all studies.
- For example, patients with high BP who participated in any level of physical activity had a reduced risk (by 16–67%) of cardiovascular mortality, whereas a greater than two–fold increase in risk of mortality was noted in nonactive individuals.
- However, activity classification and parameters, such as frequency, duration, intensity, and volume, as well as BP status, were not consistent across studies.
