The Effect of Walking on Cardiovascular Risk

July 20, 2006 updated by: University of Ulster

The Effect of a Worksite Based Walking Programme on Cardiovascular Risk in Previously Sedentary Civil Servants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an 8 week program of walking for 45 minutes, twice a week, on fitness, body composition , blood pressure and blood markers of cardiovascular risk. We hypothesised that this 90 minutes of walking per week would result in measurable increases in fitness and reductions in body fat, resting blood pressure and improved blood lipid profiles.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Current physical activity guidelines suggest that every adult should accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity physical activity on most days of the week. However, compliance with these guidelines requires considerable commitment in terms of time spent exercising per week (> 150 minutes) and this may deter individuals from starting an exercise programme. Accordingly, randomised controlled trials are needed to evaluate the effects of smaller volumes of exercise on health.

37 civil servants (24 women) aged 41.5 + 9.3 years, were randomly assigned to either two 45 minute walks per week (walking group) or no training (control group). Aerobic fitness, body composition, blood pressure (BP), CRP and lipoprotein variables were measured at baseline and following 8 weeks. Steps counts were measured at baseline and during weeks 4 and 8 of the intervention

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Co Antrim
      • Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, United Kingdom, BT37 0QB
        • University of Ulster

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Member of staff at the Northern Ireland Civil Service

Exclusion Criteria:

Physically active (defined as compliance with current physical activity guidelines (Pate, 1995), age > 65 years, resting BP > 159/99 mm Hg, total cholesterol > 6.2 mmol•L-1, fasting blood glucose > 7.0 mmol•L-1, body mass index (BMI) > 34.9 kg•m-2, current cigarette smokers, individuals with cardiovascular, pulmonary or metabolic disease, pain or discomfort in the chest, dizziness or heart murmur.

individuals taking medication known to interfere with lipid metabolism, females who were pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the following five months

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Aerobic Fitness
Resting Blood Pressure
Body Fatness
Blood Lipids
C-reactive Protein

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Study Director: Marie H Murphy, University of Ulster at Jordanstown

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2002

Primary Completion

December 7, 2022

Study Completion

January 1, 2003

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 27, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 27, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

January 31, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 21, 2006

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 20, 2006

Last Verified

January 1, 2003

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Murtagh/Murphy 2004

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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