Dr. Moholdt, head of the Exercise, Cardiometabolic Health and Reproduction research group at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and her collaborators asked individuals about physical activity in 1985, and again in 2007. At each time point, investigators asked participants to report how many hours per week they spent in “mosjon,” the Norwegian word for “motion”; Dr. Moholdt explained that the word carries the connotation of purposeful, health-promoting physical activity.
Individuals were grouped into one of three activity levels at each time point: Inactive participants reported no purposeful physical activity, moderately active participants reported less than 2 hours per week of this activity, and the most highly active group was active for 2 or more hours per week.
Patients who were in each of the three activity groupings at baseline might have changed their activity levels by the second assessment, so the investigators tracked a total of nine categories of exercise trends over time.
The mean age of participants in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT study) was 39 years, and the mean body mass index was 24 kg/m2. Of the 23,156 participants, 12,665 were women. Dr. Moholdt and her colleagues used statistical analysis to adjust for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, educational status, and systolic blood pressure.
However, Dr. Moholdt acknowledged at the press conference that comorbidities not captured in the study design might impact changes in activity levels, particularly for formerly highly active patients who became inactive over the study period.
The study was presented in a poster session at the congress. Dr. Moholdt reported no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by Health Central Norway (Helse-Midt Norge), a state entity that operates health care facilities in the region of Norway where the HUNT study was conducted.
SOURCE: Moholdt T. et al. ESC Congress 2019, Abstract P627.