06 Apr Vigorous Exercise Linked To Lower All-Cause Mortality

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Klaus Gebel
GradDipExRehab, MExSc, MAppSc, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention
College of Public Health, Medical & Veterinary Sciences
James Cook University
Cairns Australia

Medical Research: What is the background for this study?

Response: The physical activity guidelines in most countries recommend for adults to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity (e.g. brisk walking) or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (e.g. jogging or cycling) or an equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous activities where 2 minutes of moderate-intensity activity counts the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. However, there have only been a few studies that examined the health benefits of different proportions of moderate and vigorous activity in the composition of total activity. The objective of this study was to examine whether the proportion of total moderate-to-vigorous activity that is achieved through vigorous activity is associated with all-cause mortality, independently of the total amount of moderate-to-vigorous activity. Data were used from the 45 and Up study from the state of New South Wales in Australia, the largest cohort study ever conducted in the Southern hemisphere.

Medical Research: What are the main findings?

Response: During 1,444,927 person-years of follow-up, 7,435 deaths were registered. Compared with those who reported no moderate-to-vigorous activity (crude death rate=8.34%), the adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 0.66 (95% CI 0.61-0.71; crude death rate=4.81%), 0.53 (0.48-0.57; 3.17%), and 0.46 (0.43-0.49; 2.64%) for reporting 10-149, 150-299, and for ≥300 minutes of activity per week respectively. Among those participants who reported any moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, the proportion of vigorous activity showed a dose-response relationship with all-cause mortality: compared with those reporting no vigorous activity (crude death rate=3.84%) the fully-adjusted hazard ratio was 0.91 (95% CI=0.84-0.98; crude death rate=2.35%) in those who reported some vigorous activity (but <30% of total activity); and 0.87 (0.81-0.93; 2.08%) among those who reported ≥30% of activity as vigorous. These associations were consistent in men and women, across categories of body mass index and volume of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and in those with and without existing cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Response: If our findings can be replicated by other studies then this would suggest that vigorous activities should be more strongly encouraged in clinical and public health activity guidelines, and, if they can, individuals should aim to incorporate some vigorous activity into their activity routine to maximize the population benefits of physical activity.

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: More studies (cohort and clinical) are needed that examine the association between different combinations of moderate and vigorous activity with multiple health outcomes, while controlling for the overall amount of activity.

Citation:

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Klaus Gebel (2015). Vigorous Exercise Linked To Lower All-Cause Mortality 

Last Updated on April 6, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD