An active midlife halves women’s risk of premature death

Women who stay active through midlife have about half the risk of early death from any cause as women who remain inactive, a study suggests.

Physical activity is known to bring a range of health benefits and lower the risk of chronic disease and premature death.

But most earlier studies measured activity at only one point in time, which does not show how exercise habits change over the years.

Binh Nguyen of the University of Sydney said: “Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health.

“Our study shows that maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death.”

The research used data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 who took part in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.

They were surveyed nine times between 1996 and 2019, about every three years. Researchers looked at how often they met the World Health Organization recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity a week.

The study found that consistently meeting those recommendations through midlife was linked to a relative risk of death from any cause that was half that of women who consistently did not meet them.

In absolute terms, the death rate was 5.3 per cent among women who consistently met the guidelines, compared with 10.4 per cent among those who consistently did not.

The effect appeared similar, or possibly stronger, for deaths linked to cardiovascular disease and cancer, although those findings were less certain, possibly because fewer deaths from those causes were recorded.

Cardiovascular disease refers to conditions affecting the heart or blood vessels.

The evidence for starting to meet the recommendations later in midlife, at age 55, 60 or 65 rather than across all of midlife, was also uncertain and inconclusive.

The study was limited by the fact that physical activity was self-reported and that the sample may not represent all mid-aged Australian women.

The authors wrote: “This study supports the growing evidence that maintaining an active lifestyle in midlife provides health benefits.

“Women should be encouraged to meet physical activity recommendations throughout mid-age to derive these benefits.”