Women who stay active can cut risk of early death by half

By Stephen Beech

Women who stay active throughout middle age cut their risk of a premature death by half, according to new research.

The study tracking more than 11,000 women found that meeting exercise guidelines during midlife had "strong" benefits in terms of living longer.

Those who consistently met physical activity guidelines throughout middle age had half the chance of dying from any cause compared to women who remained inactive, according to the findings.

Physical activity is known to provide multiple well-being benefits and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and premature death.

But most previous studies measured physical activity at only a single point in time, failing to capture how activity levels change over time.

For the new study, researchers used data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 who enrolled in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.

Participants were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, around once every three years.

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Data was collected on how often the women met the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, showed that consistently meeting MVPA recommendations throughout midlife was associated with a relative risk of any cause of dying that was half that of those who consistently did not meet the recommendations.

The incidence of death was 5.3% among women who consistently met guidelines compared to 10.4% among those who consistently did not.

The researchers say the magnitude of effect appeared similar or even stronger for cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality, though greater uncertainty in those estimates made the findings less conclusive, possibly because fewer deaths from those causes were observed.

The evidence for benefits of starting to meet recommendations later in midlife — at age 55, 60, or 65 — rather than throughout all of midlife was also uncertain and inconclusive.

Study author Dr. Binh Nguyen, of the University of Sydney, Australia, said: “This study supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife provides health benefits.

“Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout middle age to derive these benefits.”

Dr. Nguyen added: "Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health.

"Our study shows that maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death.”