Physical Activity And Life Expectancy

Earlier this month, I came across an older article (Janssen et al, 2013) about how leisure time physical activity is associated with increases in longevity. Men are expected to gain up to 2.6 hours of life with each hour of moderate activity and 5.4 hours of life per hour of vigorous activity.

Women are estimated to gain up to 5.6 hours of life per hour of moderate activity and 11.3 hours of life for every hour of vigorous activity!

Just last night I saw another article that was published just 2 weeks ago by Veerman et al (2024). The authors investigated how physical activity (PA) levels were associated with mortality rates. Whether low PA reduces life expectancy and how much life expectancy couls be improved by increasing PA levels.

Ready for the results? For individuals in the lowest activity quartile, the greatest gain in lifetime per hour of walking would gain them an extra 6.3 hours with each additional hour of walking.

If all individuals were just as active as the top 25 percent of the population, those above 40 would live an extra 5.3 years.

Picture from Veerman et al (2024)

The  authors concluded that higher PA levels will provide a substantial increase in overall population life expectancy. 

So you know what you need to do if you want to live longer.

References

Janssen I, Carson V, Lee IM et al 92013). Years Of Life Gained Due To Leisure-time Physical Activity In The US. Am J Prev Med. 4491): 23-29. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.09.056

Veerman L, Tarp J, Wijaya R  et al (2024). Physical Activity And Life Expectancy: A Life-table Anaylysis. BJSM. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2024-108125.