Exercise and self-rated health in adult primary care patients.

BACKGROUND

Clinical guidelines call for more exercise than many patients are willing to undertake. More modest goals are more acceptable but may not improve overall self-rated health (SRH) in primary care patients. Furthermore, whether exercise should be measured in minutes per week, times per week, or both is unclear.

DESIGN

A random sample of 939 primary care patients met criteria for the study. Exercise was measured in self-reported minutes and times per week. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to test for the independent effects of minutes and times per week of exercise on SRH in primary care patients.

RESULTS

Exercising 1 to 150 minutes per week was independently related to good SRH (odds ratio = 3.41, confidence interval = 1.73-6.73) as was exercising 151 to 300 minutes per week (odds ratio = 4.13, confidence interval = 1.45-11.71). The number of exercise times per week was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS

In our sample of relatively healthy primary care patients, exercising 1 to 300 minutes per week appears to promote good SRH.