A new study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine implies that older men could lower their risk of death by involving themselves in any level of physical activity, including light intensity exercise, for a few minutes.
According to researchers, low intensity exercises are better suited to older men. The current exercise guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activities in sessions lasting 10 or more minutes. However, it may be difficult for older adults to achieve such a pattern.
To discover whether other patterns of physical activity might be associated with a lower death risk, scientists assessed the data obtained from the British Regional Heart Study, which involved 7735 participants from 24 British towns, whose age ranged between 40 and 59 years when the study was carried out during 1978–1980.
In 2010–2012, the 3137 survivors were invited for a medical check-up, which included a physical examination and a questionnaire concerning their sleeping patterns, lifestyle, and their previous experience of heart disease, if any.
They were also instructed to wear an accelerometer – a device used to continuously track the volume and intensity of physical activity – during waking hours for 7 days. Their health conditions were then tracked until their death or June 2016, whichever came sooner.
In total, about 50% (1566) of the men agreed to wear the device; however, after excluding the participants with pre-existing heart disease and those who hadn’t worn their accelerometer enough during the 7 days, the final analysis centered on 1181 men, whose average age was 78. During the study period of about 5 years, 194 of the men died.
The study findings showed that total volume of physical activity, starting from light intensity exercises up, was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause.
Source: News Medical
