Primary prevention of CVD: physical activity

Increasing physical activity has been associated with reduced risk of mortality and of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The proportion of people doing no physical activity in a week varies between countries, but can reach nearly 25% in Europe and the Americas.

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: Does counselling people to increase physical activity lead to increased physical activity in healthy people without existing CVD? What are the health benefits of increasing physical activity in relation to cardiovascular outcomes in healthy people without existing CVD? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to September 2008 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

We found 21 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

In this systematic review, we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: counselling people to increase physical activity, and to perform higher-intensity exercise programmes.