Overweight, obese women improve quality of life with 10 to 30 minutes of exercise

Sedentary, overweight or obese women can improve their quality of life by exercising as little as 10 to 30 minutes a day, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Conference on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism.

The Dose Response to Exercise in postmenopausal Women (DREW) study, first reported in 2007, was the largest randomized, controlled trial examining the role of exercise in postmenopausal women. These secondary results focus on quality of life among 430 women divided into four groups: three groups exercising at various levels and one control group that did not exercise.

“While the women who participated in the highest exercise group saw the greatest improvements in most quality of life scales, the women in the lowest exercise group also saw improvements,” said Angela Thompson, M.S.P.H., co-author of the study and research associate at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. “The public health message is tremendous, because it provides further support for the notion that even if someone cannot exercise an hour or more daily, getting out and exercising 10 to 30 minutes per day is beneficial, too.”

All participants in the exercise groups reported a statistically significant improvement in social functioning compared to those in the control group of women who didn’t exercise. However, women who participated in more exercise, from 135 to 150 minutes a week, also showed significant improvements in general health, vitality and mental health.

The women who exercised more also improved in physical functioning, role limitations in work or other activities due to physical problems and role limitations due to emotional problems, the researchers said. None of the women reported a statistically significant improvement in pain.

After exercising six months, the women improved almost 7 percent in physical function and general health, 16.6 percent in vitality, 11.5 percent in performing work or other activities, 11.6 percent in emotional health and more than 5 percent in social functioning.

“This has not been shown in a large controlled study before,” said Timothy S. Church, M.D., principal investigator and research director at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “This is the first large controlled study of postmenopausal women to look at the effect of exercise training on the quality of life. It shows that exercise gives you energy and makes you feel better.”

This study included 430 sedentary women, average age 57, who were overweight or obese. Researchers randomly assigned women to one of three exercise groups, including those expending about four kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg) of energy each week amounting to 70 minutes a week; 8 kcal/kg/week amounting to 135 minutes per week; or 12 kcal/kg/week amounting to 190 minutes a week. Most of the exercise was divided into three or four sessions a week. When not in organized exercise, these women were fitted with pedometers. A fourth group had no planned exercise and served as controls.