Association between physical exercise and stroke recurrence among first-ever ischemic stroke survivors, 2021, Hou et al.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92736-5

• Article
• Open Access
• Published: 28 June 2021

Association between physical exercise and stroke recurrence among first-ever ischemic stroke survivors

• Lisha Hou,
• Mier Li,
• Ju Wang,
• Yawen Li,
• Qianwen Zheng,
• Lu Zhang,
• Qiang Yao,
• Jing Zhang,
• Shuju Dong,
• Muke Zhou &
• Cairong Zhu

Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 13372 (2021) Cite this article

Abstract

The relationship between exercise and stroke recurrence is controversial.

This study was designed to test whether an association exists between exercise and ischemic stroke recurrence in first-ever ischemic stroke survivors.

Data were collected from January 2010 to June 2016.

Baseline information was obtained during face-to-face interviews, and follow-up phone interviews were conducted every 3 months.

Exercise type, frequency, intensity, and duration were recorded.

Discrete-time survival analysis was used to determine the relationship between exercise and stroke recurrence.

760 first-ever ischemic stroke survivors who were able to exercise were enrolled.

After adjusting for covariates, patients who exercised 3.5–7 h per week and more than 7 h per week had a lower relapse risk than patients who did not exercise (3.5–7: OR 0.415; > 7: OR 0.356).

Moreover, if the fluctuation of exercise duration was over 4 h, the patients had a higher risk of stroke recurrence than those with variability of less than 2 h (OR 2.153, P = 0.013).

Stroke survivors who engage in long-term regular mild exercise (more than 5 sessions per week and lasting on average 40 min per session) have a lower recurrence rate.

Irregular exercise increases the risk of stroke recurrence.

 

When I saw the thread title, I thought, "Surely, this is going to be a controlled trial where people are assigned to groups and instructed to exercise in different ways?". "Surely, no-one would do this using naturalistic exercise behaviour, they'd realise that people's actual behaviour is going to be dependent on their physical condition at the time?"

But there it is. I was wrong on both counts.