For people over age 60, meeting current U.S. guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous exercise was linked to a 28 percent lower risk of dying over about 10 years, compared to being completely sedentary. But even lower levels of exercise were tied to a 22 percent reduction in mortality risk.
“When our older patients cannot do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week because of chronic diseases, we (the 2008 guidelines) recommend them to be as physically active as their abilities and conditions allow,” said lead author Dr. David Hupin of the department of clinical and exercise physiology, University Hospital of Saint-Etienne, France, by email.
But, Hupin’s team writes in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the 150-minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous exercise suggested in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans could be too much for some older adults, discouraging them from exercising. The authors point out that more than 60 percent of older adults don’t meet that requirement.
For the new study, Hupin’s team looked at whether less exercise could still be beneficial. They analyzed data from past studies covering a total of 122,417 men and women between the ages of 60 and 101 in the U.S., Taiwan and Australia.
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