A recent study suggested that performing physical activity or PA even at light intensity can help increase a person’s chances of prolonged life expectancy.
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The study covered 6,636 participants in the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003 – 2006). A light-intensity PA was
defined in tertiles (low, medium, and high), while survival models were
utilized to estimate the years of life gained from each physical activity
category.
There was a total of 994 mortalities occurred at 55,520
person-years. The average follow-up period was 11 years.
At the age of 20 years, individuals with low, medium,
and high light-intensity PA had a predicted life expectancy of 53.92, and 58.44
years, correspondingly. This revealed that the medium and high PA levels could produce
gains in years of life of 2.89 and 3.07 years.
Corresponding years of life gained at 45 and 65 years
of age were 2.51 and 1.52 years with medium light-intensity PA, and 2.66 and
1.62 years with high light-intensity PA.
These correlations observed were pronounced in
individuals performing moderate-to-vigorous PA below the average but not for
those with moderate-to-vigorous PA above the average.
Provided the low prevalence of moderate-to-vigorous physical
activity in populations, PA promotion initiatives may take advantage of emerging
evidence on light-intensity PA and target the most inactive groups, according
to experts.
Source: Am J Prev Med2021;doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2021.02.012