National Exercise and Heart Disease Project: Psychosocial Changes Observed During a Low-Level Exercise Program

Seven hundred eighty-four men, 30 to 64 years of age, with documented myocardial infarctions less than three years prior to study admission, were admitted to a six-week low-level exercise program. Six hundred fifty-one subjects completed the program, in which exercise intensity was limited to a maximum of 72% of age-predicted heart rate. This report characterizes study dropouts. In addition, the results suggest that low-level exercise is sufficient to stimulate positive psychosocial, sexual, and vocational changes in an upper middle class volunteer population. Recency of infarct is significantly correlated with degree of change in work capacity but does not appear to influence significantly the outcome variables, with the possible exception of return to sexual functioning. ( Arch Intern Med 1981;141:1463-1467)