Primary hypertension (HTN) and obesity are associated with a worse health-related quality of life (QoL). This research was carried out to analyze the health-related QoL measurements in a physically inactive and obese population with HTN (n = 253) in comparison to a HEALTHY sample (n = 30), to determine the HTN sample changes in QoL following different (high-volume moderate-intensity continuous training, high-volume high-intensity interval training (HIIT), low-volume HIIT) 16-week supervised aerobic exercise training (ExT) programs compared to attention control, and to assess the differences in QoL variables between the different ExT programs. The SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess health-related QoL. At baseline, HTN showed lower scores (p < 0.05) in physical function (88.6 versus 99.2), general health (63.3 versus 82.4), vitality (58.2 versus 68.7), social functioning (88.5 versus 95.2), and mental health (76.1 versus 81.8) compared to HEALTHY. Following intervention, all HTN subgroups showed higher (p < 0.05) vitality, but physical functioning and general health significantly improved only in the ExT groups, with even better values in general health for both HIIT subgroups. Only the low-volume HIIT showed positive changes (p < 0.05) in social functioning (delta = 6.9%) and mental health (delta = 6.4%) domains after the intervention. These results highlight the important role of supervised exercise in improving physical and psychological health.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher