The European Society of Cardiology has been figuring out how physical activity affects the likelihood of death from various causes and from cardiovascular diseases. For many people, habits change over time, so it’s important to study how such changes affect the risk of death, HighTech + reported referring to the Science Daily.
All Norwegians over 20 years old were invited to take part in the survey three times: in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. The analysis included answers to questions about the duration and frequency of physical activity in free time received from 23146 men and women. Physical activity was divided into several categories: low, moderate (less than two hours a week) and high (two or more hours a week).
Then, physical activity data of different categories were compared with information about death. The analysis also took into account factors such as body mass index, gender, age, smoking, level of education, and blood pressure.
Compared to the control group, people who have been in the same inactive category for 20 years are at twice as high risk of dying from various causes and 2.7 times higher risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases.
Moderate activity over 20 years somewhat reduces the likelihood of death, but such people has the likelihood of dying from various causes and from CVD is still higher by 60% and 90%.
The authors of the study noted that there are clear recommendations regarding the amount of exercise that adults need to improve their health - 150 minutes a week with moderate intensity or 75 minutes with intense anaerobic exercise.
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