RESEARCH NEWS

Activity levels in mums and children ‘directly linked’

Latest research from Cambridge and Southampton universities suggests that the more active a mother is, the more physically active her child will be. This UK study examined 500 mums and their four-year-olds. Researchers used heart-rate monitors to measure activity levels over seven days. They also found that many mothers’ exercise levels fell way below recommended levels and that factors which influenced a mother’s activity levels included if she had a job and whether the child had brothers or sisters.

The study, which can be found in Pediatrics, said policies to improve children’s health need to be aimed more at mothers. They came to the conclusion that children are not “just naturally active”, and parents have an important role to play in developing healthy exercise habits early on in life.

Kathryn Hesketh, who co-led the study, told the BBC: “The more activity a mother did, the more active her child. Although it is not possible

to tell from this study whether active children were making their mothers run around after them, it is likely that activity in one of the pair influences activity in the other.” Hesketh went on to comment that for

every minute of moderate- to-vigorous activity a mother engaged in, her child was more likely to engage in 10% more of the same level of activity. For every minute the mother was sedentary, children were 0.18 minutes more sedentary, so one hour of sedentary time in mums would result in 10.8 minutes in children. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/health-26679906

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ONLINE TO EARN CPD POINTS

To give your answers please visit www. exerciseregister.org under ‘CPD & Training’ and select ‘Free Online CPD’.

Q1 Q2 Q3

In the study by Kathryn Hesketh for every one hour a mother is sedentary, how long would her children be? a) 18 minutes b) 10.8 minutes c) 8.10 minutes

In Biondolillo and Pillemer’s study into motivational memories, which group of students had the lowest levels of exercise? a) The students who recalled positive memories b) The students who recalled negative memories c) The controlled group

What percentage saw a reduction of all-cause mortality/hospitalisation in women when subjected to exercise training in a recent study regarding cardiovascular disease? a) 26% b) 10% c) 35%

Exercise training improves health outcomes of women with heart disease

A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure, has found that exercise training reduced the risk for subsequent all-cause mortality or all-cause hospitalisation in women by 26% compared with 10% in men.

This trial is the first of its kind to link the effects of exercise training to health outcomes in women with cardiovascular disease.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, responsible for one-in-four female deaths. Although women are twice as likely as men to develop heart failure following heart attack or cardiac ischemia, they are less often directed to complete an exercise programme – something this study looked to challenge.

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2,331 patients with heart failure were randomly assigned to either medical therapy or a medical programme combined with exercise training. Results were based on the change in peak oxygen intake (VO2) of participants. Patients randomised to the exercise treatment arm participated in supervised walking, or cycling for 30 minutes three days a week for six weeks.

Women randomised to exercise training saw a 26% reduction in risk of all-cause mortality or hospitalisation compared with a 10% reduction in risk of these outcomes for men randomised to exercise (HR 0.99, 95 percent CI 0.86-1.13), demonstrating the positive impact exercise training can have on women recovering from heart failure.

The REPS Journal 2014;30(summer):12-13