PHYSICAL-ACTIVITY AND INCIDENCE OF CORONARY HEART-DISEASE IN MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN AND MEN

Few studies of physical activity and coronary heart disease (CHD) have included women or blacks. We examined this association in a biracial cohort of 45- to 64-yr-old adults. We related the sports, leisure, and work indices developed by J. A. H.Baecke et al. to CHD incident event s (N = 97 in women, N = 223 in men) over 4-7 yr in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. The age-, race-, and field center-adjusted relative risk of CHD was 0.73 in women and 0.82 in men per each stand ard deviation increment in the sports index (P < 0.05). For the leisur e index, these relative risks were 0.78 for both sexes (P < 0.05). The work index was not associated with CHD. These inverse associations he ld for non-blacks, but there was no association between the sport or l eisure indices and CHD among blacks. Vigorous sports participation was strongly inversely associated with CHD, but an independent contributi on of nonvigorous activity (e.g., walking) could not be demonstrated c onclusively. Adjustment for other risk factors attenuated the relative risks, as one might expect if these risk factors mediated any protect ive effect of physical activity. Our findings reinforce evidence that regular physical activity should protect women, as well as men, from C HD. Explanations for no association among blacks, if real, are needed.