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Faster walking patients with heart disease are hospitalised less, a recent study has found. The three-year University of Ferrara study was conducted in 1,078 hypertensive patients, of whom 85% also had coronary heart disease and 15% also had valve disease. Patients were then asked to walk 1 km on a treadmill at what they considered to be a moderate intensity.3 Patients were classified as slow (2.6 km/hour), intermediate (3.9 km/hour) and fast (average 5.1 km/hour). A total of 359 patients were slow walkers, 362 were intermediate and 357 were fast walkers.