Effects of a community physical activity program on the number of antihypertensive drugs used by elderly women with arterial hypertension: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Physical exercise is an important tool to manage systemic arterial hypertension. However, less is known about the effect of physical exercise on the number of antihypertensive drugs used by older adults. Objectives The aim was to compare the number of antihypertensive drugs used by older female adults with a low level of physical activity with the number used by those with a high level of physical activity, and to verify how many participants used more than two antihypertensive drugs. Methods Twenty-eight physically active older women with systemic arterial hypertension who participated in a physical activity program for community-dwelling older female adults were divided into two groups: participants that presented lower habitual physical activity levels were placed in group 1 and participants that presented higher habitual physical activity levels were placed in group 2, according to the Baecke questionnaire. In addition, the number of antihypertensive drugs used by participants was collected. Results The number of ingested antihypertensive tablets was 2.0 (median) for both groups investigated. There was no significant difference between groups regarding the number of antihypertensive tablets ingested (p>0.05). Although there was no statistical difference, a higher proportion of participants from the lower physical activity group used more than two antihypertensive drugs. Conclusions The level of habitual physical activity did not affect the number of antihypertensive tablets used by hypertensive women.