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 Researchers examined data from 10 previously published studies that
used accelerometers that track movement to measure the exact amount
of active and sedentary time spent by more than 36,000 older adults.
After an average follow-up period of 6.7 years, a total of 2,149
people died, or about 6% of the participants.
Compared to people who got virtually no exercise, people who got the
most physical activity were 73% less likely to die during the study,
regardless of how intensely they worked out. With even a little
exercise, people were 52% less like to die.
When researchers looked only at people who did light workouts, they
again found that even a little bit of low-intensity exercise was
associated with a 40% lower risk of death during the study compared
with doing nothing at all. People who got the most light-intensity
exercise were 62% less likely to die.
"The finding that higher levels of light-intensity physical activity
reduce the risk of death is novel and suggests that all physical
activity counts," said Ulf Ekelund, lead author of the study and a
researcher at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and the
Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo.
"This is of particular importance for elderly and those who may not
be able to participate in physical activity at moderate and higher
intensities," Ekelund said by email. "The simple take-home message
is to sit less, move more, and move more often."
Physical inactivity has long been linked to an increased risk of
premature death and a wide variety of chronic health problems, but
much of this evidence has been based on surveys that might not
provide an accurate picture of how much exercise people really get,
the review team writes in The BMJ.
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In the current analysis, participants were 63 years old, on average.
All of them wore accelerometers for at least 10 hours a day for four
or more days to track how much they moved, the intensity of their
activity levels and how much time they were sedentary and not moving
at all.
People who were sedentary for 10 hours a day were 48% more likely to
die during the study than people who moved more. Twelve hours a day
of sedentary time was associated with an almost tripled risk of
death during the study.
When researchers excluded people who died within the first two years
of follow-up - who might have been sicker than others, explaining
their inactivity - the results didn't change.
One limitation of the study is that it looked at men and women
combined, making it impossible to determine if there are any
sex-based differences in the connection between activity levels and
longevity. Participants were also middle-aged and older, so it's
unclear if results would be similar for younger adults.
"By reducing sedentary time people increase activity, therefore, it
is likely that both are not independent factors and that they
represent two sides of the same coin," said Jochen Klenk, author of
an editorial accompanying the study and a researcher the Institute
of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry at Ulm University in Germany.
"Based in the results of the paper, is seems that any level of
intensity is beneficial," Klenk said by email.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2kuUyt9 and https://bit.ly/2lSd9jc The BMJ,
online August 21, 2019.
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