A recent study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes has shown that after having a cardiac event such as a heart attack, people who are more sedentary are at greater risk of having a second cardiac event.
The study included 609 participants who visited an emergency department for acute coronary syndrome symptoms between 2016 and 2020. After being discharged from the hospital, the percipients wore wrist accelerometers that measured their activity levels and sedentary time for the next 30 days. The four categories of activity included sedentary time, light-intensity physical activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and sleep. Then, the participants were monitored for cardiac events and death for a year following their discharge from the hospital. The goal of the study was to see how sedentary and active behavior affect risk after a cardiac event.
The results showed that the people with the most sedentary time and least physical activity were over 2.5 times more likely to suffer a second heart-related event or die within a year of their hospitalization compared to the participants who got the most physical activity. Reducing sedentary time by just 30 minutes and replacing it with 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise every day reduced the risk of death and cardiac events by 61%. Similarly, replacing that time with 30 minutes of light-intensity activity reduced risk by 50%. Even replacing that time with 30 additional minutes of sleep reduced risk by 14%.
The authors noted that their results don’t mean people have to start running marathons to see reductions in risk; even small efforts to replace sedentary time with movement can lead to major results. The authors further stated that they were a bit surprised to see that replacing sedentary time with sleep could reduce risk. However, sleep has many restorative properties, which may be particularly important after suffering a cardiac even like a heart attack.
Sources: Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Science Daily
