in comparison with men with
few depressive symptoms and a high level of physical activity.
Whooley, de Jonge, Vittinghoff, et al. conducted a study
to determine why depressive symptoms are associated with
an increased risk of cardiovascular events in patients with
stable coronary heart disease [11]. The study included 1.017
outpatients with average follow-up of 4.8 years. The researchers
found that participants with depressive symptoms
had a 50% greater risk of cardiovascular events: the ageadjusted
annual rate of cardiovascular events was 10%
among the 199 participants with depressive symptoms and
6.7% among the 818 participants without depressive symptoms.
After further adjustment for health behaviours, including
physical inactivity, there was no longer a significant association
between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular
events. Participants with depressive symptoms had a 50%