Heart patients with arthritis get less exercise

Heart disease patients who also have arthritis are more likely to be physically inactive, so they should be encouraged to find an appropriate self-management and exercise program, researchers said. Those who had diagnosed arthritis were 30% more likely to be inactive than heart disease patients who did not have the condition, Julie Bolen, Ph.D., of the CDC, and colleagues reported in the February 27 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. "Healthcare providers should consider addressing this barrier with . . . self-management education and exercise programs for their patients with arthritis and heart disease," the researchers said. Arthritis is common comorbidity among patients with heart disease, a group that is already less likely to comply with physical activity recommendations, the researchers said. So joint pain and fear of further joint damage may be an unrecognized barrier to exercise in this group. To estimate the prevalence of heart disease patients with arthritis and their physical activity levels, the researchers looked at data from the 2005 and 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which surveyed 757,858 by telephone - Medpage Today