FRIDAY, March 22, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Both low and high levels of physical activity (PA) are associated with reduced all-cause mortality, according to a study published online March 19 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Min Zhao, from Shandong University in Jinan, China, and colleagues examined data from the National Health Interview Surveys (1997 to 2008) linked to the National Death Index records through Dec. 31, 2011. Data were included for 88,140 eligible participants aged 40 to 85 years.
The researchers found that individuals performing 10 to 59 minutes/week of PA had a lower risk for all-cause mortality than inactive individuals (hazard ratio [HR], 0.82 [95 percent confidence interval, 0.72 to 0.95]). Individuals who reported one to two times the recommended level of leisure time PA (150 to 299 min/week) had a further reduced risk for all-cause mortality (HR, 0.69 [0.63 to 0.75]). Continued benefits were seen for those performing 10 or more times the recommended level of leisure-time PA (≥1,500 minutes/week: HR, 0.54 [0.45 to 0.64]). The HRs for cardiovascular disease-specific mortality were 0.88 (0.67 to 1.17), 0.63 (0.52 to 0.78), and 0.67 (0.45 to 0.99) for 10 to 59, 150 to 299, and ≥1,500 min/week, respectively; the corresponding HRs were 0.86 (0.66 to 1.11), 0.76 (0.64 to 0.89), and 0.53 (0.39 to 0.73) for cancer-specific mortality.
“Promoting PA of any intensity and amount is an important approach to reducing mortality risk in the general population,” the authors write.
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