Investigators have found that the risk of cardiovascular mortality may be higher in individuals who don’t partake in leisure-time physical activity, according to a recent study published by Abohashem et al in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Investigators used the 2011 to 2019 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases as well as the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System survey to examine age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality rates and leisure-time physical activity habits of individuals residing in 2,900 U.S. counties. They then assessed the county characteristics correlated with higher rates of cardiovascular mortality. The investigators discovered that 2.4% (n = 7.38 million/309.9 million) of the individuals residing in the counties involved in the study experienced cardiovascular mortality within the study period. Socioeconomic, environmental, and clinical characteristics accounted for up to 65% of the variance in the lack of leisure-time physical activity rates. Further, these rates correlated with higher age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality rates—especially among middle-aged individuals (standardized incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.04–1.07) and middle-aged women (standardized IRR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.07–1.12). The highest rates of additional yearly deaths were reported among older non-Hispanic Black individuals—at 68 per 100,000 persons. The investigators concluded that their new findings represented a critical need for targeted public health interventions to promote physical activity in high-risk communities.