Relationships of Total and Domain-Specific Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity with All-Cause and Disease Specific Mortality.

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the relationships of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with all-cause and disease-specific mortality. We also investigated how the association between MVPA at leisure time (LT-MVPA) and health outcomes differs at different MVPA at work (WT-MVPA) levels.

METHODS: The 81,601 community-dwelling Japanese persons aged 50-79 years who responded to a questionnaire in 2000-2003 were followed until 2018. Cox proportional hazard model was used to examine the association of total MVPA with risks of all-cause, cancer, heart disease, stroke and respiratory disease mortality. Then, we compared the mortality risk according to the tertile of LT-MVPA, stratified by the tertile of WT-MVPA.

RESULTS: During the 15.1 years of average follow-up, 16,951 deaths were identified. Even total MVPA below the recommended volume (i.e., 0.1-1.49 METs-h/day) was associated with 11% to 24% reductions in all-cause (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.82-0.96) and heart disease mortality (HR:0.76, CI: 0.61-0.94), compared to no MVPA at all. The further reduced risks were seen in MVPA up to 10 METs-h/day. The inverse association between LT-MVPA and mortality risks was more evident at lower WT-MVPA, which WT-MVPA was also inversely associated with the risks.

CONCLUSIONS: Health benefits were observed at low levels of MVPA and up to 10 METs-h/day although the fine threshold for excessive MVPA was not clear. LT-MVPA had distinct health benefits especially for persons with lower WT-MVPA.