A study that has been released in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has found that only 20 to 25 minutes of physical activity per day can reduce the elevated risk of death related to an inactive lifestyle. Experts say that greater amounts of physical activity every day are linked to a reduced risk, regardless of the total time spent sitting each day. As per the data, adults spend around 9 to 10 hours per day sitting down on average in their workplaces in developed countries. The authors of the study say that an extremely inactive lifestyle is linked to an increased risk of fatality.
Experts have compared health data of people who have been using activity trackers to identify what amount of daily exercise and sitting time can affect the risk of death and whether daily exercise can change the link between an inactive lifestyle and death, and vice versa. Nearly 12,000 people in the age range of 50 years have been enrolled in the study. Experts have tracked a minimum of 4 days of 10 daily hours of activity tracker data for at least 2 years. The study has included influential factors such as gender, weight, educational level, height, alcohol consumption, smoking history, history of cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes, and alcohol intake.
The study has shown that being inactive for over 12 hours per day has been linked to a 38 percent increased risk of fatality as compared to 8 hours of daily exercise a day, but only in those people who clock less than 22 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily exercise. Experts say that more than 22 minutes of moderate to strong daily activity has been linked to reduced risk of death regardless of the amount of inactive time spent. The link between sitting time and death has been majorly affected by the total of moderate to vigorous physical activity. An additional 10 minutes of physical activity per day has been linked to a 15 percent reduced risk of mortality for people who spend less than 10.5 inactive hours.