British Journal of Sports Medicine, Vol 22, Issue 4 148-152, Copyright © 1988 by British Association of Sport and Medicine
Exercise levels and resting pulse rate in the community
GD Laird and MJ Campbell
Department of Medical Statistics and Computing, University of Southampton.
A community survey examined attitudes to exercise in relation to health,
measured levels of exercise participation, and related exercise
participation to resting pulse rate. A questionnaire was sent to 400
Southampton residents selected by a systematic random sample from the
electoral roll, and provided 259 useful responses, yielding an effective
response rate of 68%, with an average age of 46 years. Attitudes to health
benefits of exercise were generally very positive; 92% thought that
exercise was important for staying in good health. Attitudes were less
positive in subjects over 50 years old, and in social classes IV and V.
Although 35% had done some vigorous exercise during the last four weeks
only 7% of social classes IV and V had done so. A total of 22 (8.5%) had
exercised for at least 20 minutes, 3 or more times per week, and 17 (77%)
of these were males with an average age of 29 years. Ninety per cent of the
sample were able to take their own resting heart rate. Resting heart rate
was 7 beat.min-1 lower in subjects who exercised for at least 20 minutes 3
or more times per week than the average.
