Physical activity and cardiovascular mortality – disentangling the roles of work, fitness, and leisure

Self-reported occupational physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness: Importance for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality

“…The physiological underlying mechanisms behind this excessive risk of CVD remain to be documented. A suggested mechanism is that an excessive prolonged cardiovascular strain from high OPA may lead to endothelia dysfunction, which after years of exposure may lead to atherosclerosis (20) and consequently CVD (2). Another potential mechanism is that high OPA leads to elevated blood pressure over the working hours or several blood pressure spikes (eg, due to heavy lifting and/or static postures), which may lead to CVD (21).…”

“…A classic notion in occupational medicine is that the combination of high occupational physical activity (OPA) and low cardiorespiratory fitness imposes an excessive physiological strain (1), which may lead to endothelium dysfunction, atherosclerosis and consequently cardiovascular disease (CVD) (2). This is illustrated by the higher relative cardiovascular load for a given work task experienced by a worker with low compared to high cardiorespiratory fitness (3).…”

Effects of leisure-time and occupational physical activities on 20-year incidence of acute myocardial infarction: mediation and interaction

“…In contrast, voluntary LTPA is usually of shorter duration compared to OPA, involves more dynamic movements, and is characterized by sufficient variation and time for restitution (59). Thus, people engaging in LTPA can achieve a training effect on the heart by performing relatively few and short but intensive bursts of momentarily exhausting conditioning PA in leisure (7). However, such activities are typically not performed during long hours of physically demanding work nor-due to exhaustion-after work.…”

Occupational physical activity and 20-year incidence of acute myocardial infarction: results from the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study

“…While the beneficial effects of LTPA on the circulatory system are relatively well established (7), the literature on the health effects of OPA remains inconsistent (8). Higher levels of OPA were associated with a reduced risk of CVD in some prospective population-based studies (9-15) but not others (10,13,(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21) or were associated with an increased CVD risk (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) and, in one study, depending on level of fitness (29).…”