Functional Capacity and Activities of Daily Living in Women

An extensive literature search that involves diverse populations has convincingly and consistently shown a very powerful and inverse association between functional capacity and risk of death (1–12). Although most studies have focused on men, more recent work has shown that a very similar pattern exists among women: those more physically active or who have a greater exercise capacity are substantially less likely to die or experience major cardiovascular events (13–16). This chapter reviews the evidence relating functional capacity in women to cardiovascular outcome and also discusses the ongoing sedentary lifestyle epidemic among women of all ages.