Sedentary lifestyle is associated with higher risk of dying from Covid-19, study indicates

 

Lack of physical exercise is associated with a greater risk of developing more severe forms of Covid-19 and dying from the disease, indicates a study carried out with almost 50 thousand patients, published this Wednesday in the scientific journal "British Journal of Sports Medicine ".

People who had been sedentary for at least two years before the pandemic were more likely to be hospitalized, require intensive care and die from the new coronavirus, compared with patients who maintained physical activity, the research found.

To analyze the possible impact of the sedentary lifestyle on the severity of the infection, hospitalization, need for resuscitation and death by Covid-19, researchers from North American universities compared the evolution of 48,440 adults with the disease between January and October 2020, in the United States.

Among the risk factors for developing a serious version of Covid-19, only advanced age and a history of organ transplantation exceed sedentary lifestyle, the researchers said. In comparison with other factors, such as smoking, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer, "physical inactivity was the most important risk factor in all the results", they emphasized.

The average age of the infected people analyzed was 47 years old and 62% of them were women. On average, his body mass index (BMI) was 31, just above the obesity threshold. About half had no previous illnesses, such as diabetes, chronic lung, cardiovascular or kidney disease and cancer. Almost 20% had one of these comorbidities, and 32% had two or more.

All had declared their level of regular physical activity at least three times between March 2018 and March 2020, during medical appointments. Among them, 15% described themselves as inactive (0 to 10 minutes of physical activity per week); 7% said they respected health recommendations (at least 150 minutes per week), and the others said they practiced "some activity" (11 to 149 minutes per week).

About 9% of these patients were hospitalized and 2% died. After considering the differences by age, ethnicity and comorbidities, sedentary people with Covid-19 were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized as those who were more active. In addition, they were 73% more likely to need resuscitation and were 2.5 times more likely to die from the infection. The study, however, does not provide evidence of the direct link between lack of exercise and the results obtained.