Revista de hipertensión: acceso abierto

Impact of Physical Activity on Survival in Hypertensive and Diabetic Patients in the Interior of São Paulo

Abstract

Grace Fernanda Severino Nunes, Roberto Jorge da Silva Franco, Nathalia Valenço Nicolau, Monica Marcelli de Souza, Rozinéia dos Santos and Luis Cuadrado Martin

Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) are a group of complications characterized by a long latency period, prolonged evolution time and irreversible lesions that lead to a variety of disabilities and death. Thus, this study aims to prospectively evaluate the association between physical activity level and mortality in hypertensive and diabetic patients from a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. A standardized longitudinal study was conducted with 200 patients evaluated in 2012 and reassessed in 2018. These hypertensive and diabetic patients answered specific questions about the level of physical activity and quality of life. Univariate analyzes for the significance test of associations were performed using the analysis of variance and the chi- square test for continuous and discrete variables, respectively. All significance tests were considered at p<0.05 and survival analysis was conducted using the COX regression model. The major findings have shown that the chance of active patients with 80% survival could be compared to sedentary. Physical activity was related to survival, although irregularly with 65% of chances of survival by the patients who do not maintain this practice. We concluded that active people have lower odds of mortality compared to sedentary. Irregularly active people have a higher chance of death when compared to the active as the level of physical activity is directly related to mortality in hypertensive and diabetic patients.