Daily Physical Activity

Research summary

• Large prospective cohort studies, including a Taiwanese study of over 400,000 people and a pooled analysis of more than a million participants, consistently show that non-exercise daily movement is inversely related to mortality, even at volumes well below formal exercise guidelines.
• A meta-analysis on step counts and mortality, along with evidence that activity can offset much of the harm from prolonged sitting, reinforces a clear and consistent dose-response pattern across very large sample sizes.
• Because these findings are replicated across multiple large, independent cohorts using objective or validated activity measures, confidence in this relationship is high, even though, as with most physical activity research, the data are observational rather than from randomized trials assigning activity levels.