Occupational, commuting, and leisure-time physical activity in relation to heart failure among finnish men and women.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the association of different levels of occupational, commuting, and leisure-time physical activity and heart failure (HF) risk.

Background: The role of different types of physical activity in explaining the risk of HF is not properly established.

Methods: Study cohorts included 28,334 Finnish men and 29,874 women who were 25 to 74 years of age and free of HF at baseline. Baseline measurement of different types of physical activity was used to predict incident HF.

Results: During a mean follow-up of 18.4 years, HF developed in 1,868 men and 1,640 women. The multivariate adjusted (age; smoking; education; alcohol consumption; body mass index; systolic blood pressure; total cholesterol; history of myocardial infarction, valvular heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, and use of antihypertensive drugs; and other types of physical activity) hazard ratios of HF associated with light, moderate, and active occupational activity were 1.00, 0.90, and 0.83 (p = 0.005, for trend) for men and 1.00, 0.80, and 0.92 (p = 0.007, for trend) for women, respectively. The multivariate adjusted hazard ratios of HF associated with low, moderate, and high leisure-time physical activity were 1.00, 0.83, and 0.65 (p < 0.001, for trend) for men and 1.00, 0.84, and 0.75 (p < 0.001, for trend) for women, respectively. Active commuting had a significant inverse association with HF risk in women, but not in men, before adjustment for occupational and leisure-time physical activity. The joint effects of any 2 types of physical activity on HF risk were even greater.

Conclusions: Moderate and high levels of occupational or leisure-time physical activity are associated with a reduced risk of HF.