Luís Monteiro Rodrigues

Common daily activities including walking might be used to improve cardiovascular health in the presence of disease. Thus, we designed a specific home-based physical activity program to assess cardiovascular indicators in an older, non-active, non-healthy population. Ten participants, with a mean age of 62.4 ± 5.6 years old, were chosen and evaluated twice—upon inclusion (D0), and on day 30 (D30)—following program application. Perfusion was measured in both feet by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and by polarised spectroscopy (PSp). Measurements were taken at baseline (Phase 1) immediately after performing the selected activities (Phase 2) and during recovery (Phase 3). Comparison outcomes between D0 and D30 revealed relevant differences in Phase 1 recordings, namely a significant increase in LDF perfusion (p = 0.005) and a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure (p = 0.008) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (p = 0.037). A correlation between the increase in perfusion and the weekly activity time was found (p = 0.043). No differences were found in Phase 2, but, in Phase 3, LDF values were still significantly higher in D30 compared with D0. These simple activities, regularly executed with minimal supervision, significantly improved the lower-limb perfusion while reducing participants’ systolic pressure and MAP, taken as an important improvement in their cardiovascular status.