Beneficial effect of physical activity on blood pressure and blood glucose among Japanese male workers.

Aims: To examine the appropriate type and frequency of physical activity for the beneficial effect on hypertension and hyperglycemia.

Methods: The incidence of hypertension and hyperglycemia was assessed using the results of annual physical checkups over 4 years for 5843 male employees aged 18-57 years old. Associations of different types of physical activity with the incidence of these two risk factors were examined with Cox proportional-hazard models.

Results: There was a progressive reduction in the hazards ratios of hypertension with increasing total daily activity (hazards ratio of 0.65 (95% CI, 0.45-0.93) in subjects who walked >8000 steps/day vs. <4000 steps/day). Subjects who exercised >3 times/week also showed a significantly lower risk (0.35; 0.13-0.96) of developing hypertension vs. those who exercised <3 times/week. The only physical activity factor associated with a lower incidence of hyperglycemia was weekend (Saturday and Sunday) physical activity (0.66; 0.43-0.99, very active vs. sedentary on weekends).

Conclusion: Increasing daily and leisure time physical activities had a beneficial effect on hypertension independent from physical activity at weekend, while only doing physical activity on weekends affects an elevation of blood glucose independent of daily and leisure time physical activity.