Abstract Body: Purpose: Women are underrepresented in cardiovascular health research and our understanding about the association between women’s research participation and healthy behaviors is limited. This study aimed to determine the association between women’s engagement in moderate physical activity (MPA) and perceived risk for heart disease (HD). We hypothesized that women who engage in MPA will have a lower perceived risk for HD.

Methods: Data was leveraged from the Barriers and Motivators to Research survey from the Millennial Women’s Heart Study funded by the American Heart Association Research Goes Red for Women. In a self-reported survey, women were asked “I am able to engage in 30 minutes of MPA (Y/N)” and “I feel that I am personally at risk for HD”. Perceived risk responses were measured on a Likert scale: “strongly agree,” “somewhat agree,” “neutral,” “somewhat disagree,” and “strongly disagree.” The Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square test was used to assess the association between categorical variables, and ANOVA was applied to compare continuous variables.


Results: Among the 192 women in this analysis, the study population included 37.5% Black women, 79.7% employed, and 63.5% who engage in MPA, with a mean age of 44 (±11) years. A larger proportion of women reported feeling at risk for HD than not. Black women were more likely than White women to report feeling at risk for HD (41.8% vs 31.9%), and employed women were more likely to report perceived risk for HD compared to unemployed women (78.1% vs 21.9%). However, there was no statistically significant difference in perceived risk for HD between women who engage in MPA and those who do not (p = 0.18).

Conclusion: Our findings align with previous research on the relationship between physical activity and HD risk perception, but no significant association was observed between MPA and perceived risk for HD in this sample. However, proportionately, a greater number of women who reported engagement in MPA noted less perceived risk for HD. Future studies should explore additional factors influencing women's perception of HD risk and include larger epidemiological cohorts to better detect potential differences in risk perception between women who engage in MPA and those who do not.