All-cause mortality associated with physical activity during leisure time, work, sports, and cycling to work.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Prospective cohort study with 14.5 years of follow-up
PubMed 10847255 · doi:10.1001/archinte.160.11.1621
What was done
A prospective cohort study evaluated 30,640 randomly selected individuals (13,375 women and 17,265 men, aged 20 to 93 years) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Self-reported physical activity was assessed across leisure time, work, sports participation, and bicycle commuting. Baseline health measures included blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, body mass index, smoking, and educational level. Participants were followed for a mean of 14.5 years for all-cause mortality.
What was found
During follow-up, 2,881 women and 5,668 men died (8,549 total deaths). Compared with sedentary individuals, age- and sex-adjusted mortality rates across leisure-time activity groups 2, 3, and 4 were 0.68 (95% CI, 0.64–0.71), 0.61 (95% CI, 0.57–0.66), and 0.53 (95% CI, 0.41–0.68), respectively, with consistent patterns across sexes and age groups. Among moderately and highly active individuals, sports participants had half the mortality rate of nonparticipants. Bicycling to work was associated with an approximate 40% reduction in mortality risk after multivariate adjustment that included leisure-time physical activity.
Why it matters
This study demonstrates that physical activity benefits extend across both sexes and all adult age groups, highlighting that everyday active transportation (cycling to work) and sports provide substantial survival benefits beyond basic leisure-time activity.
Limits
Physical activity was measured exclusively through self-report rather than objective devices, introducing potential misclassification and recall bias. The observational design cannot rule out residual confounding or reverse causation from baseline subclinical disease. Findings from a single urban Danish cohort may have limited generalizability to settings with different infrastructure or cycling habits.
Cited by
- supports A study found that people who engaged in high amounts of cycling had their overall mortality risk reduced by 40% in later decades of life.