What Are Lifetime Risks of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer According to Physical Activity Levels?

The World Health Organization has recommended, for purposes of health promotion, that people do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week. To encourage this recommended physical activity level, it is important to improve our understanding of its beneficial effects on health. The investigators in this study thought that one important issue may be to give information on the lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, in relation to physical activity levels. They investigated these issues in a large sample of the US population and followed for 25 years.

The results showed that, compared with people who were physically inactive, men meeting the World Health Organization-recommended physical activity level had 7 percent lower lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease (46 percent vs. 53 percent) and women had 11 percent lower risk (31 percent vs. 42 percent). The lifetime risks of cancer were about 41 percent for men and 30 percent for women regardless of physical activity levels.

Read the abstract here

Originally posted by American College of Sports Medicine