A new study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that a higher area-level prevalence of men cycling to work and women walking to work in England was associated with a lower incidence of myocardial infarction.
Researchers conducted an ecological study of 325 local authorities in England which included 43,077,039 working individuals aged 25-74 years and 117,521 individuals with myocardial infarction.
The findings showed that the prevalence of active transport to work in 2011 was associated with a lower incidence of myocardial infarction in 2012 among men who cycled to their workplace (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.983; 95% credible interval [CI], 0.967-0.999) and women who walked to their workplace (IRR, 0.983; 95% CI, 0.967-0.999). However, after adjustment for physical activity, smoking and diabetes, there was no significant association between the prevalence of active transport and combined incidence of myocardial infarction for men and women between 2011 and 2013.
"Efforts to increase the uptake of active transport to work are warranted to improve population-based health," the authors concluded.
