London : Men who get regular, moderate exercise, such as walking or cycling for 20 minutes daily, may have a lower risk of heart failure compared to those with the lowest and highest levels of activity, a new study has claimed, reports PTI.
However, recent active behaviour may play a more important role than past physical activity, researchers said. Heart failure is a condition where the heart is unable to pump as much blood as the body needs.
Researchers followed 33,012 men from the Cohort of Swedish Men from 1998 until 2012 – or first event of heart failure – to determine if physical activity was associated with heart failure risk. Overall, men who had the lowest and highest levels of physical activity had a higher risk of heart failure, 47 per cent and 51 per cent respectively, than men with a median level, the study found.
When analysing the different types of physical activity, walking or bicycling for 20 minutes per day was associated with the largest risk reduction. When enrolling in the study, participants from two counties in Sweden completed a questionnaire about their level of activity at work, home, walking or bicycling, and exercise in the year prior at an average of 60 years old and retrospectively at 30 years old.
Researchers assigned each type of physical activity an intensity score and determined walking or bicycling just 20 minutes per day was associated with a 21 per cent lower risk of heart failure and accounted for the largest difference in heart failure free survival.
Of the men diagnosed with heart failure during the course of study, those who had engaged in at least 20 minutes per day in walking or bicycling were approximately eight months older compared to heart failure cases who had engaged in less than 20 minutes per day of walking or bicycling.