Regular physical activity is known to improve longevity and reduce the risk of chronic disease. To better understand how different types and varieties of physical activity relate to mortality, researchers analyzed data from 70,725 women and 40,742 men participating in two studies. Over 2.43 million person-years of follow-up, higher total physical activity and most individual activities were associated with lower all-cause mortality.
Compared with the lowest activity levels, the adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality in the highest activity categories were 0.83 for walking, 0.89 for jogging, 0.87 for running, 0.96 for bicycling, 1.01 for swimming, 0.85 for tennis or squash, 0.90 for climbing stairs, 0.86 for rowing or calisthenics, and 0.87 for weight training or resistance exercise. Swimming was the only activity not associated with a mortality benefit. Beyond total activity…
