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Women Achieve Comparable Heart Protection With Half the Exercise Men Need, Study Finds

Based on weeklong wearable data from the UK Biobank, experts say the results warrant exploring sex‑tailored exercise guidance.

Overview

  • Researchers analyzed wrist‑tracker data from roughly 80,000–85,000 UK adults and linked a one‑week activity snapshot to about seven to eight years of health records.
  • Women reached an estimated 30% lower coronary heart disease risk at about 250 minutes of weekly moderate activity, whereas men needed roughly 530 minutes for a similar reduction.
  • Among participants without prior coronary heart disease, meeting 150 minutes per week was associated with a 22% risk reduction for women versus 17% for men.
  • In those already diagnosed with coronary heart disease, 150 minutes per week correlated with far larger all‑cause mortality gains for women (about 70% lower risk) than for men (about 20%).
  • The study reports a clear dose‑response for both sexes and, while observational and demographically limited, it has prompted calls to test mechanisms and consider sex‑specific recommendations.