Don't Just Sit There, Do Something! Part 17 Mortality

It's the start of a brand new year but we're back to the same old story: physical activity is associated w/lower mortality.  So in an attempt to help you keep one of the most common resolutions, I wanted to point out a population-based study published in this month's American Journal of Preventive Medicine in which the authors concluded that leisure time physical activity is associated with a decrease in mortality (well, they looked at the inverse (converse?) as an increase in longevity).

More specifically, the authors analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Health Interview Study, and US Life tables to compare life expectancy at all ages of adulthood in comparison with self-reported weekly physical activity.  But rather than express their results in statistics, eg relative risk of chronic disease & mortality, the authors decided to look at a simpler, more applicable & easily understandable measure: increase/decrease in life expectancy.

The authors designated 4 METs (metabolic equivalents) as moderate intensity and 8 METs as vigorous.  Using 500 MET minutes/week as the breakpoint between somewhat active & active, this parameter is equivalent to 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week.

Somewhat-active and active non-Hispanic men had 2+yrs greater life expectancy compared to inactive men.  Non-Hispanic women who were somewhat-active and active had a 3yr greater life expectancy.  Black women who were active had 5+yrs great life expectancy compared to their inactive peers.  Put another way, every hour of moderate physical activity was associated w/2-5hrs greater life expectancy while an hour of vigorous physical activity was associated w/5-11hrs greater life expectancy.

Bottom line: don't just sit there, do something!

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