Regular Exercise Reduces Incidence of Colds in Postmenopausal Women

News Author: Laurie Barclay, MDCME Author: Charles Vega, MD, FAAFP

October 30, 2006 — Postmenopausal women who performed moderate exercise for 1 year had reduced incidence of colds, but not of other upper respiratory tract infections, according to the results of a study reported in the October issue of the American Journal of Medicine.
“The role of regular physical activity in preventing acute illnesses such as colds or other upper respiratory tract infections is not well defined,” write Jessica Chubak, MBHL, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues. “Improving our understanding of how to prevent these illnesses may help reduce the economic and health burden they impose.... Thus, the objective of the present study was to assess, in a randomized, controlled trial with excellent adherence, the effects of a year-long exercise intervention on the risk of colds and other upper respiratory tract infections.”
In this study, 115 overweight and obese, sedentary, postmenopausal women in the Seattle area were randomized to the moderate-intensity exercise group or the control group. Women in the intervention group participated in 45 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 5 days per week for 12 months, and those in the control group attended once-weekly, 45-minute stretching sessions. During the 12-month study, questionnaires asking about upper respiratory tract infections in the previous 3 months were completed quarterly.
Compared with the control group, the intervention group had a reduced risk for colds during 12 months (P = .02). During the last 3 months of the study, the risk for colds in the control group was more than 3-fold that of the intervention group (P = .03). The protective exercise effect seemed to be confined to women who did not regularly use multivitamins.
The risk for upper respiratory tract infections overall was not significantly different between groups (P = .16). However, this result may have been affected by differential proportions of influenza vaccinations in the intervention and control groups.
Study limitations include possible recall bias; poor reproducibility of the self-reported duration of infectious episodes; and possible errors in classifying colds, influenza, and other upper respiratory tract infections.
“This study suggests that 1 year of moderate-intensity exercise training can reduce the incidence of colds among postmenopausal women,” the authors write. “These findings are of public health relevance and add a new facet to the growing literature on the health benefits of moderate exercise.”
The National Cancer Institute supported this study.
Am J Med. 2006;119;937-942.