Bicycling may help lower cardiovascular disease risk

Riding a bicycle can help people get in better shape and lead to improved health. It may also aid in lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Adults in Sweden who traveled to and from work on their bicycles had a lower risk of incident obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia and impaired glucose tolerance compared with those who used passive modes of transportation, according to a population-based cohort study.

Lead researcher Anders Grøntved, MSc, MPH, PhD, of the University of Southern Denmark, and colleagues published their results online in the Journal of the American Heart Association on Oct. 31.

Another prospective cohort study in Denmark found that cyclists had an 11 percent to 18 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease during a 20-year follow-up period compared with noncyclists after adjusting for multiple variables. The findings from that trial were published online in Circulation on Oct. 31.

The Swedish study examined 23,732 men and women who were part of the Vasterbottens Health Survey, in which the researchers monitored risk factors and outcomes and provided participants rudimentary advice on healthy lifestyle behaviors.

At baseline, the mean age was 43.5 years old, while 59 percent of participants commuted to work via passive trial and 24 percent traveled on their bicycle.

During a median of 10 years of follow-up, 8.6 percent of participants had an incident case of obesity, 25.3 percent had an incident case of hypertension, 18.4 percent had an incident case of hypertriglyceridemia and 21.0 percent had an incident case of impaired glucose tolerance.

After adjusting for confounding factors, the researchers found that cycling to work at baseline was associated with a 15 percent lower odds of incident obesity, a 13 percent lower odds of hypertension, a 15 percent lower odds of hypertriglyceridemia and a 12 percent lower odds of impaired glucose tolerance compared with passive travel.

“Finding time for exercise can be challenging for many people, so clinicians working in the field of cardiovascular risk prevention should consider promoting cycling as a mode of transportation,” Grøntved said in a news release.

The Swedish study had a few limitations, including that the researchers could not quantify the contribution of bicycling to work to the total physical activity level. They also did not have detailed information on the intensity of bicycling to work. In addition, residual and unknown confounders might have affected the results. Further, the findings might not be generalizable to other countries or groups of people because the participants lived in a region where bicycling was common.

“Our estimates of the public health impact of substituting bicycling to work for passive transport suggest significant cardiovascular risk factor improvements in this population,” the Swedish researchers wrote. “Efforts to encourage population-wide active commuting by bicycle, in addition to other domains of physical activity, may be an effective strategy for primordial prevention of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus in the general population.”

Meanwhile, the study in Denmark followed 25,329 men and 28,394 women from a prospective cohort study for 20 years. During the follow-up period, there were 2,892 incident cases of coronary heart disease. The researchers found that an estimated 7.4 percent of coronary heart disease cases could have been prevented if all of the adults participated in cycling.

They cited a few limitations of the study, as well, including selection bias, recall bias, social desirability bias, generalizability to other populations and inaccuracy regarding coronary heart disease cases.

“Because recreational and commuter biking is an easy way to make physical activity part of one’s routine in a non-structured and informal fashion, based on the results, public health authorities, governments and employers ought to consider initiatives that promote bicycle riding as a way to support large-scale cardiovascular disease prevention efforts,” lead researcher Kim Blond, MSc, of the University of Southern Denmark, said in a news release.