Effects of a Real-Life Park-Based Physical Activity Interventional Program on Cardiovascular Risk and Physical Fitness
ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 18 — February 25, 2021
PEER REVIEWED
In the preintervention evaluation of the Exercise and Heart Project, signed informed consent was available for 1,592 participants. Of the participants, 1,466 were aged 40 to 80 years. Of those, 416 returned to the postintervention evaluation, and 197 of those completed the postintervention evaluation within 3 to 6 months. Of the 197, there were 152 who followed the prescription. Regarding physical activity, 25 were inactive, 31 were insufficiently active, 43 were active, and 47 were very active; physical activity was not assessed for 6 participants. Regarding cardiovascular fitness, there were 32 in the first quartile, 37 in the second quartile, 35 in the third quartile, and 27 in the fourth quartile; test data could not be assessed for 21 participants.
Figure.
Flow of participants in the Exercise and Heart Project study of physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness, São Paulo, Brazil, October 2001–October 2015. Levels of physical activity were defined as 1) inactive, 0 minutes per week; 2) insufficiently active, 1 to 149 minutes per week; 3) active, 150 to 299 minutes per week; and 4) very active, 300 or more minutes per week (6). Cardiorespiratory fitness level was assessed by the 2-minute step-test and classified based on quartiles of the total sample as follows: quartile 1, 87 or fewer steps; quartile 2, 88 to 101 steps; quartile 3, 102 to 114 steps; and quartile 4, 115 steps or more.
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