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The role of physical activity
Author(s) -
Dwyer Terry,
Briggs Daniel A.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1983.tb122747.x
Subject(s) - blood pressure , physical fitness , medicine , randomized controlled trial , physical therapy , physical activity , psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation
Cross‐sectional studies have demonstrated a negative association between the reported level of leisure‐time activity, measured endurance fitness, and blood pressure. There have also been a number of prospective trials; the majority indicate that an increase in fitness is followed by a fall in blood pressure. Few have included control subjects —a critical defect, since a spontaneous fall in blood pressure is customary with serial measurements in individuals. The studies which did have control subjects were examined in detail. These also generally indicated a lowering of blood pressure with increasing fitness. However, other flaws in design of these studies, such as a lack of blind assessment, prohibit confident conclusions. There is a need for further randomized, controlled, single‐blind trials concerning the relationship between physical activity and blood pressure.