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 For people over age 60, meeting current U.S. guidelines for
moderate-to-vigorous exercise was linked to a 28 percent lower risk
of dying over about 10 years, compared to being completely
sedentary. But even lower levels of exercise were tied to a 22
percent reduction in mortality risk.
“When our older patients cannot do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity
physical activity a week because of chronic diseases, we (the 2008
guidelines) recommend them to be as physically active as their
abilities and conditions allow,” said lead author Dr. David Hupin of
the department of clinical and exercise physiology, University
Hospital of Saint-Etienne, France, by email.
But, Hupin’s team writes in the British Journal of Sports Medicine,
the 150-minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise suggested
in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans could be too
much for some older adults, discouraging them from exercising. The
authors point out that more than 60 percent of older adults don’t
meet that requirement.
For the new study, Hupin’s team looked at whether less exercise
could still be beneficial. They analyzed data from past studies
covering a total of 122,417 men and women between the ages of 60 and
101 in the U.S., Taiwan and Australia.
The studies evaluated participants' physical activity levels and
their risk of dying from any cause over about 10 years. Theyalso
factored in participants’ self-reported health status, physical or
mental illnesses, weight, cholesterol and other details.
Hupin’s team standardized participants' exercise amount and
intensity into units known as Metabolic Equivalent of Task, or METs,
representing the amount of energy expended per minute in a specific
activity. Resting expends 1 MET, moderate activity like walking uses
3 to 5.9 METs and vigorous exercise like running uses more than 6
METs.
A weekly exercise “dose” was low if it totaled 1 to 499 METs,
moderate at 500 to 999 METs and high if it was more than 1,000 METs.
The mortality rate was 22 percent lower among people in the low METs
category than among those who did no exercise at all beyond the
activities of daily living.
For people in the moderate METs category - which is equivalent to
the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous
exercise - there were 28 percent fewer deaths compared to those with
no exercise.
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People who expended at least 1,000 METs per week had a 35 percent
lower mortality rate.
The link between exercise and mortality risk was especially strong
for cardiovascular disease and less so for cancer, the researchers
note.
Older women showed an even greater benefit from exercise than men,
with their mortality risk decreasing by 32 percent compared to men’s
14 percent in the low-METs category. One reason could be that women
underestimated their exercise level and men overestimated theirs,
the authors write.
The researchers recommend 15 minutes per day of exercise based on
these results, but Hupin said adults who couldn’t even meet that
goal would benefit by merely moving around more on a consistent
basis.
“Scientific evidence is now emerging to show that there may be
health benefits from light physical activity and from replacing
sedentary activities with light intensity activities, when the dose
of (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) is held constant,” Hupin
said. “They must become less sedentary: cooking or working at a
standing desk, rather than sitting.
“Age is not an excuse to do no exercise,” he said.
Thomas Buford, who directs the Health Promotion Center at the
University of Florida in Gainesville, said that while the study
offered great examples of exercise, such as walking briskly,
bicycling and swimming or gymnastics, he agreed that even increasing
exercise in small bouts would help.
“For each individual, they would have to be tailored depending on
their physical abilities,” Buford said by email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1HEXnpf British Journal of Sports Medicine,
online August 3, 2015.
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