The Institute of Sport Exercise and Health’s (ISEH) Professor Mark Hamer, Chair in Sport and Exercise Medicine and dedicated researcher, was a co-author of a study exploring the Health benefits of leisure-time physical activity by socioeconomic status, lifestyle risk, and mental health, and how they might differ across population subgroups.
Regular physical activity is advised for individuals aged 5 and older and there is evidence to support that higher levels of physical activity are associated with a greater number of disease-free years, (but the range of diseases included as outcomes varied considerably, and few studies conducted subgroup analyses). This study aimed to assess these benefits by measuring the number of years lived without major non-communicable diseases across groups with different levels of risk factors.
The researchers conducted their analysis using a multicohort study of initially healthy European adults (more than 530,000) from the IPD-Work Consortium and participants from the UK Biobank study. Self-reported leisure-time physical activity levels were categorised into three groups: low (none or minimal activity), intermediate (between low and recommended levels), and WHO-recommended (≥2.5 hours of moderate or ≥1.25 hours of vigorous physical activity per week).
The researchers divided the study population into 36 overlapping subgroups based on socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and mental health at baseline. The analysis assessed disease-free years between ages 40 and 75, considering conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cancer, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for both the overall population and subgroups.
Their findings confirm the association between leisure-time physical activity and increased disease-free years across various population subgroups, while also indicating that these benefits are often greater among individuals with pre-existing health risks or disadvantaged backgrounds.
The increase in disease-free years associated with physical activity was consistently observed across all 36 subgroups, in both males and females, and in both studies. However, this increase was generally more pronounced in populations with higher health risks, such as smokers, individuals with lower education or socioeconomic backgrounds, and in those with depressive symptoms. This suggests that expanding population-wide physical activity initiatives could contribute to reducing health disparities, while incorporating physical activity into targeted interventions addressing social disadvantage, unhealthy lifestyles, and depression may further enhance their effectiveness.
Published in the Lancet, this research was a collaborative effort with other researchers – authors of this study: Solja T Nyberg, Philipp Frank, Jaana Pentti, Lars Alfredsson, Jenni Ervasti, Marcel Goldberg, Anders Knutsson, Aki Koskinen, Tea Lallukka, Maria Nordin, Ossi Rahkonen, Timo Strandberg,Sakari Suominen, Ari Väänänen, Jussi Vahtera,Marianna Virtanen, Hugo Westerlund, Marie Zins, Sari Stenholm, Séverine Sabia, Archana Singh-Manoux, and Mika Kivimäki.
