Queensland, Australia – A recent study by researchers from The University of Queensland has unveiled that young women who engage in regular physical activity in their 20s can reap enduring benefits for their heart health in later stages of life.
Dr. Gregore Iven Mielke, an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, and Professor Gita Mishra from UQ’s School of Public Health conducted an analysis of longitudinal data encompassing 479 women. These women had diligently reported their physical activity levels every three years, beginning from their early 20s and extending into their mid-40s.
“Our objective was to investigate whether women could ‘accumulate’ the advantages of physical activity, much like saving in a bank, to enhance their cardiovascular health,” Dr. Mielke explained.
The results suggest that they can.
Among women in their 40s, those who had been most active during their young adulthood exhibited an average resting heart rate of approximately 72 beats per minute (bpm). In contrast, those who had been the least active during the same period recorded an average resting heart rate of about 78 bpm.
Though the difference may seem subtle, prior research has indicated that even an increase of 1 bpm in resting heart rate is associated with heightened mortality risk.
“A lower resting heart rate generally signifies that the heart is functioning more efficiently, as it should be,” Dr. Mielke pointed out.
These findings emphasize that regular physical activity, regardless of when it occurs, can deliver substantial cardiovascular health advantages to women before they enter menopause.
“This underscores the need for public health campaigns to promote an active lifestyle among women in their 20s and 30s, with the positive health impact enduring into later stages of life,” Dr. Mielke stressed.
The researchers also underscored the significance of understanding the potential impacts of accumulating physical activity, especially for women, given that pregnancy and childbearing can significantly influence activity levels.
“Few studies have employed life course epidemiology models to investigate the role of accumulated physical activity in disease prevention,” Dr. Mielke noted.
The study was conducted in collaboration with UQ’s Dr. Jenny Doust and Dr. Hsiu-Wen Chan and relied on data from the Menarche-to-PreMenopause study, a sub-study of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH). This extensive research has been ongoing for over two decades, examining the health of more than 57,000 women.
