{"id":1647,"date":"2015-05-05T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/heart-journalscan\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2015-11-12T17:07:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T16:07:43","slug":"relationship-between-physical-activity-and-mortality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/heart\/2015\/05\/05\/relationship-between-physical-activity-and-mortality\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationship\u00a0Between\u00a0Physical Activity\u00a0and Mortality\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The 2008\u00a0Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommended 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity weekly for\u00a0optimal\u00a0health. However,\u00a0these\u00a0guidelines acknowledged uncertainty on the upper threshold of benefit or potential harms of high activity levels.\u00a0\u00a0Using data from 6 pooled cohorts from the National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium (baseline 1992-2003) with self-reports of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA),\u00a0Arem\u00a0and colleagues aimed to address\u00a0this question. The total cohort consisted of 661,137 men and women with a median age of 62 years and a median follow-up of 14.2 years in which 116,686 deaths were accrued. When compared to subjects with no reported LTPA, individuals exercising less than the recommended minimum of 7.5metabolic-equivalent hours per week exhibited a 20% mortality benefit (HR 0.80 [95%\u00a0CI 0.78-0.82]), individuals exercising 1 to 2 times the recommended minimum exhibited a 31% mortality benefit (HR 0.69 [95%CI 0.67-0.70]), and individuals exercising 2 to 3 times the minimum experienced a 37% mortality benefit (HR 0.63 [95%CI 0.62-0.65]). Researchers observed a ceiling of mortality benefit at the threshold of 3 to 5 times the minimum suggested LTPA (HR 0.61 [95%CI\u00a00.59-0.62]).\u00a0Additionally,\u00a0there was no evidence of harm associated with\u00a0exercise at a level of 10 times or more than the recommended minimum\u00a0(HR 0.69 [95%CI 0.59-0.78]).\u00a0Similar dose-response\u00a0and threshold effects\u00a0were seen\u00a0for\u00a0cardiovascular\u00a0and\u00a0cancer mortality.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:\u00a0<\/b>Achieving\u00a0the minimum levels of physical activity\u00a0recommended\u00a0in the\u00a02008 Physical Activity Guidelines\u00a0was\u00a0associated with a mortality benefit.\u00a0 Increasing health benefits were observed with increasing\u00a0levels of physical activity up to\u00a05 times the minimum\u00a0recommended activity level and no harm was associated with higher levels of physical activity.\u00a0 These findings support physical activity as cornerstone of optimal health and reduce concerns for potential harm associated with high levels of physical activity.<\/p>\n

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Summarized by Jehu S. Mathew and Steven M. Bradley<\/p>\n