Mulheres na atenção primária à saúde: exercício físico, estilo de vida e fatores de risco cardiovascular

Lifestyle disorders are related to inappropriate habits. Exercise programs can reduce the risk of to be affected by them. To evaluate and compare the effects of two programs on some of the parameters that determine the health of women attended at a Unidade Basica de Saude (community health center), 54 women aged from 40 to 80 were grouped together into two groups: G1 (n = 26) to exercise the standard program (walking) and G2 (n = 28) to do the exercises of an alternative program (calisthenics + walking). The sessions for sixty minutes occurred four times a week for 16 weeks. The G1 and G2 participants exhibited loses (p <0.05) weight, reduced their body mass index, body fat percentage and blood pressure, as well as higher speed and higher oxygen consumption. G1 exhibited reduced diastolic blood pressure, increased forced vital capacity, and reduced cholesterol. G2 showed reduction of the total cholesterol level, the triglycerides levels and the VLDL. Our conclusion is that the programs showed similar positive results, in spite of superiority of the results presented by G2. However, they did not reduce cardiovascular risk.