Even light physical activity can prolong life expectancy

Performing physical activity (PA) even at light intensity can increase people’s chances of living a long life, as suggested in a study.

The analysis included 6,636 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003–2006). Light-intensity PA was defined in tertiles (low, medium, and high), while survival models were used to estimate the years of life gained from each PA category.

A total of 994 deaths occurred at 55,520 person-years. The mean follow-up duration was 11 years.

At 20 years of age, individuals with low, medium, and high light-intensity PA had a predicted life expectancy of 53.92 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 46.66–61.18), 58.16 (95 percent CI, 52.10–65.22), and 58.44 (95 percent CI, 51.29–65.60) years, respectively. This showed that the medium and high PA levels could yield gains in years of life of 2.89 (95 percent CI, 0.90, 4.12) and 3.07 (95 percent CI, 0.84–5.30) years.

The corresponding years of life gained at 45 and 65 years of age were 2.51 (95 percent CI, 0.40–5.47) and 1.52 (95 percent CI, 0.54–2.50) years with medium light-intensity PA, and 2.66 (95 percent CI, 0.80–4.52) and 1.62 (95 percent CI, 0.49–52.75) years with high light-intensity PA.

This associations observed were pronounced in individuals performing moderate-to-vigorous PA below the median but not for those with moderate-to-vigorous PA above the median.

Given the low prevalence of moderate-to-vigorous PA in populations, PA promotion initiatives may take advantage of emerging evidence on light-intensity PA and target the most inactive groups.