Small daily activity boosts could prevent thousands of deaths yearly
A major analysis of 135,000 people found that adding just 5-10 minutes of daily exercise or reducing sitting time by 30 minutes could prevent a significant share of deaths. The findings suggest public health campaigns should focus on modest, achievable changes rather than ambitious fitness goals—a shift with major implications for workplace wellness programs and health policy.
Originaltitel: Deaths potentially averted by small changes in physical activity and sedentary time: an individual participant data meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
<p>Background: The effects of small, realistic changes in physical activity and sedentary behaviour on population-level mortality are unclear. We aimed to estimate the proportion of deaths preventable by 5-min and 10-min incremental increases in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and 30-min and 60-min reductions in daily sedentary time.</p><p>Methods: We did an individual participant data meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. We included studies with device-measured physical activity and sedentary time. We estimated the proportion of deaths prevented (potential impact fractions; PIFs) by changes in (1) the approximately 20% least active participants (high-risk approach) and (2) all participants except the approximately 20% most active (population-based approach). We calculated PIFs from adjusted hazard ratios estimated for 5-min and 10-min increases in MVPA and 30-min and 60-min reductions in sedentary time from observed levels across the activity distribution.</p><p>Findings: We included seven cohorts from Norway, Sweden, and the USA (n=40 327; 4895 deaths). Data from the UK Biobank (n=94 719; 3487 deaths) were analysed separately. A 5-min/day increase in MVPA in the least active participants might prevent 6·0% (95% CI 4·3-7·4) of all deaths. A similar increase in MVPA in all participants except the most active might prevent 10·0% (6·3-13·4) of all deaths. Reducing sedentary time by 30 min/day might prevent 3·0% (2·0-4·1) of all deaths in the high-risk approach and 7·3% (4·8-9·6) in the population-based approach. Results from the UK Biobank were of a smaller magnitude but still substantial-eg, reducing sedentary time by 30 min/day in all except the most active participants was associated with preventing 4·5% (2·8-6·1) of total deaths.</p><p>Interpretation Small and realistic increases in MVPA of 5 min/day might prevent up to 6% of all deaths in a high-risk approach and 10% of all deaths in population-based approach. Reducing sedentary time by 30 min/day might prevent a smaller, but still meaningful, proportion of deaths in the two risk scenarios.</p>