Association and comparison of physical activity with cardiovascular health, quality of life and anthropometric measurements in adult women

Abstract

Objective: To associate and compare the level of physical activity with cardiovascular health (CVH), quality of life, cardiorespiratory fitness, anthropometric variables and workload of active and sedentary women working in a university environment. Methods: Cross-sectional study, carried out with employees of a higher education institution. The sample was for convenience and 51 healthy adult women participated. Seven metrics were evaluated for CVH, using the international physical activity questionnaire and the Mediterranean diet questionnaire. Quality of life was assessed using the Short Form-36 instrument and cardiorespiratory fitness using the shuttle run test. The Student-t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data, and a multiple linear regression was performed with data adjusted for age and the climacteric period. Results: Active women had lower values for waist-hip ratio (WHR) (p=0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (p<0.001), and higher results for maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) (p<0.001), CVH score (p<0.001), functional capacity (p=0.004), and general health (p=0.009). There was a direct relationship with the CVH score (p= 0.018) and VO2max (p= 0.012), and an inverse relationship for workload (p=0.013). Conclusion: The level of physical activity contributes to lower values of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (WHR and DBP) and higher values of VO2max, SCV scores and quality of life in active women.