Impact of physical inactivity on the incidence of stroke, coronary heart disease, and disability free life expectancy among the elderly in Jing'an District, Shanghai / 上海预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of physical inactivity among the elderly in Jing'an District during 2002-2011;to quantify the burden of stroke and coronary heart disease attributable to physical inactivity; and to estimate the benefits in disability free life expectancy ( DFLE) from reasonable physical activity. Methods To understand the epidemiological characteristics of physical inactivity among the elderly in Jing'an District, through analyzing DFLE data.To obtain relative risk ( RR) of stoke and coronary heart disease attributable to physical inactivity, via World Health Organi-zation ( WHO) Comparative Risk Assessment ( CRA) project.To calculate population attributable frac-tions ( PAFs) using CRA methodology.To estimate the increase of DFLE attributable to physical activity, based on the results of Jing'an District DFLE research. Results From 2002 to 2011 , the prevalence of physical inactivity and the incidence of stroke and coronary heart disease associated with physical inactivity among the elderly in Jing'an District presented a downward trend, i.e.incidence of stroke at 13.80%(range 9.16%-21.43%) and that of coronary heart disease at 16.83% (11.19%-26.76%).With the elimination of physical inactivity, DFLE is expected to increase by 0.94 (0.11-2.70) years from stroke and 0.65 (0.11-1.91) years from coronary heart disease. Conclusion Increase of physical activity could reduce the incidence of stroke and coronary heart disease among the elderly, increase DFLE , and gain health benefits.