Physical activity helps reduce cardiovascular risk and the risk of premature death. However, there are clear gender differences in effectiveness.
A new prospective study involving experts from Tsinghua University in China examined how the health benefits of physical activity vary by gender. The results were published in the “Journal of the American College of Cardiology”.
Reduced mortality
The team used data from a total of 412,413 adult participants who provided information about their physical activity in their leisure time. During the observation period, there were 39,935 deaths among participants, of which 11,670 were due to cardiovascular causes.
If the participants were regularly physically active in their free time, this reduced the risk of all-cause mortality in women by 24 percent and in men by 15 percent compared to inactive participants, the researchers report.
Do women need less exercise?
In addition, it was shown that the maximum survival benefit in men was achieved by 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. According to the team, women achieved a similarly large benefit to their life expectancy when they engaged in just 140 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week.
In general, gender-specific results in cardiovascular deaths were similar and consistent across all aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity levels, the experts explain. There was therefore no significant difference between the types of movement.
Overall, according to the researchers, the results show that women achieve a greater reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality and also the risk of cardiovascular mortality compared to men through the same dose of physical activity in their leisure time.
Increase life expectancy by taking 4,400 steps
The fact that physical activity generally has a significant influence on the life expectancy of women has already been found in a study published in the journal “JAMA Internal Medicine”. The researchers came to the conclusion that older women can significantly increase their life expectancy if they walk at least 4,400 steps every day.
In the study, when retired women walked 4,400 steps a day, this was associated with a 41 percent lower risk of dying prematurely, compared to retired women who only walked 2,700 steps a day, the team involved explains.
The risk of premature death decreased steadily in the participating older women up to a value of 7,500 steps per day before the reduction in the risk of premature death eventually leveled off, the experts involved added. (as)
