[The relationship between physical activity in leasure time and the ankle-brachial index in a general Spanish population: The ARTPER study]

Background and objective: High levels of daily physical activity have been shown to be linked to decreased functional impairment in peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients and positively related to the ankle brachial index (ABI) in subjects without PAD. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and the ABI in a general population.

Material and method: Baseline data from the ARTPER study cohort corresponding to 2,840 subjects>49 years from Barcelona were analyzed. The LTPA variable was obtained through the validated Spanish short version of the Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire. ABI<0.9 was taken to indicate PAD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the independent association between LTPA and PAD.

Results: Subjects with more LTPA were younger, female, less smokers, and suffered fewer PAD. Total activity, measured in metabolic energy turnover (MET) and the LTPA hours, was significantly higher in subjects without PAD (P<.001). There was an inverse relationship between LTPA and the risk of suffering PAD (odds ratio 0.56, 95% confidence interval 0.38-0.81 for those who expended 2,700 METs or more in 14 days) adjusting for confounding factors.

Conclusions: In our study, LTPA was positively related to the ABI, with those with PAD being the ones with less LTPA.