Participants, with an average age of 76, were asked to report pre-pandemic “lifestyle factors” including physical activity levels and were classified as “inactive,” “inadequately active,” or “fully active.” classified into three categories.based on guidelines Research recommends 150 to 300 minutes of “moderate-intensity” exercise each week.
Ten percent of adults were in the “fully active” group. 27% less likely to get infected with COVID-19 They are less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than inactive adults, a study has found.
“People who adhered to physical activity guidelines before the pandemic had a lower probability and risk of contracting COVID-19 and being hospitalized,” Muñoz Vergara said.
This result is consistent with other recent studies. California and led by another Researchers affiliated with Harvard Universitysaid Muñoz-Vergara. However, this study “contributed further because it extended the results” in a large elderly population. He said.
Muñoz Vergara said 61,000 adults “can be considered a large population.” Still, the authors and experts not involved in the study acknowledged that the findings have limitations.
Sabrina Asumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, said the participants were primarily college-educated women, making the results difficult to generalize to the general population. Ta.
“I’d like to see this with a more diverse group of people,” Asumou said. “From other groups racial/ethnic background to explore this, and people from different socio-economic backgrounds. Reading the study makes me wonder how generalizable this finding is, so it would be helpful to see this replicated in other groups. ”
Assomou also pointed out that the data was self-reported and not obtained from medical records. Muñoz Vergara also pointed out that the number of reported coronavirus cases may have been an “underestimation.”
“Some infected people were asymptomatic, but there was no way to know whether they had coronavirus or not,” he said. “We always have to think about those limits.”
The definition of “severity” is “based only on hospitalization,” Muñoz Vergara said, noting that some people may have serious symptoms but not go to the hospital.
Muñoz-Vergara and Asumou also said other reasons why the “fully active” group may have had less severe COVID-19 infections include being vaccinated and being less susceptible to the virus. He cited measures being taken to avoid infection.
“Perhaps the people who were more physically active to begin with are the ones who are more likely to wear masks and avoid crowds,” Asumou said.
Still, Asumou said the study builds on previous research on the benefits of exercise for the lungs and “neurological conditions.” That is “encouraging,” she said.
“It’s consistent with what we know: exercise is good for you,” she said.
The study could also pave the way for further research, Asumou said.
“In the big picture, this is a useful data point that builds on what we already know related to physical activity,” she said. “That raises some interesting questions, such as whether we can quantify how much physical activity is actually needed to influence the risk of infection and hospitalization.”
Muñoz-Vergara said she wants to continue using this “rich data set” to investigate the association between pre-pandemic physical activity and risk of depression during the first year of the pandemic, and in the coming months. He said he hopes to publish new research within the next few days.
Ava Berger can be reached at [email protected] her @Ava_Berger_.
