The study involved 4,714 adult women who were referred to treadmill exercise and echocardiography due to known or suspected coronary artery disease. Participants walked or ran on the treadmill, gradually increasing the intensity until they could not continue. Images of the heart were generated during the test. The women were between age 50 and 75 with an average age of 64. The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Vienna last week.
The women were then categorized by their fitness, which was defined by metabolic equivalents. A workload of 10 METS, which is considered good exercise capacity, is equivalent to being able to walk up four flights of stairs fast or three flights of stairs very fast.
Women who achieved the 10 METS level were then compared to women who achieved lower METS levels and followed for an average of nearly 5 years. Over that time there were 345 cardiovascular events, 164 cancer deaths, and 203 deaths from other causes. When they looked at their MET levels they found that the annual rate of death from cardiovascular disease was nearly four times higher in women with poor exercise capacity compared to those with good capacity.
Annual cancer deaths were twice as high in patients with poor exercise capacity compared to women with good exercise capacity. The annual rate of death from other causes was four times higher among the poor exercise group compared to the good exercise capacity women.
Source: European Society of Cardiology
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