Exercise Tied to 50% Reduction in Mortality After Stroke
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In a large study of community-based stroke survivors in Canada, researchers found those meeting guideline-recommended levels of physical activity had a significantly lower risk for death from any cause, with a greater than 50% reduction in risk. Lead study author Raed A. Joundi, MD, DPhil, of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, said he expected results to show exercise was beneficial, but was surprised by the magnitude of the association between physical activity and lower mortality risk. The impact of physical activity also differed significantly by age; those younger than 75 had a 79% reduction in mortality risk compared with 32% in those age 75 and older.
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@lalima Weekly physical activity averages were evaluated using the self-reporting Canadian Community Health Survey, which was linked with administrative databases to evaluate the association of physical activity with long-term risk for mortality among stroke survivors compared with controls. Physical activity was measured in metabolic equivalents (METs); meeting minimum physical activity guidelines was defined as 10 MET-hours/week. During the study period, more stroke patients than controls died (24.7% vs 5.7%). However, those who met the physical activity guideline recommendations of 10 MET-hours/week had a lower mortality, both in the stroke survivor group (14.6% vs 33.2%; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.29 - 0.73) and among control participants (3.6% vs 7.9%; aHR 0.69; 95% CI, 0.62 - 0.76).