Copyright © 2004 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
The "Weekend Warrior" and Risk of Mortality
1 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
2 Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
3 Sports Medicine Research Center, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan.
4 Division of Epidemiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
Physical activity improves health, and current recommendations encourage daily exercise. However, little is known about any health benefits associated with infrequent bouts of exercise (e.g., 1–2 episodes/week) that generate the recommended energy expenditure. The authors conducted a prospective cohort study among 8,421 men (mean age, 66 years) in the Harvard Alumni Health Study, without major chronic diseases, who provided details about physical activity on mailed questionnaires in 1988 and 1993. Men were classified as "sedentary" (expending <500 kcal/week), "insufficiently active" (500–999 kcal/week), "weekend warriors" (
1,000 kcal/week from sports/recreation 1–2 times/week), or "regularly active" (all others expending 1,000 kcal/week). Between 1988 and 1997, 1,234 men died. The multivariate relative risks for mortality among the sedentary, insufficiently active, weekend warriors, and regularly active men were 1.00 (referent), 0.75 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.62, 0.91), 0.85 (95% CI: 0.65, 1.11), and 0.64 (95% CI: 0.55, 0.73), respectively. In stratified analysis, among men without major risk factors, weekend warriors had a lower risk of dying, compared with sedentary men (relative risk = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.81). This was not seen among men with at least one major risk factor (corresponding relative risk = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.75, 1.38). These results suggest that regular physical activity generating 1,000 kcal/week or more should be recommended for lowering mortality rates. However, among those with no major risk factors, even 1–2 episodes/week generating 1,000 kcal/week or more can postpone mortality.
exercise; mortality; motor activity; physical fitness
Abbreviations: Abbreviations: ACSM, American College of Sports Medicine; CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CI, confidence interval.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. Puig-Ribera, J. McKenna, N. Gilson, and W. J. Brown Change in work day step counts, wellbeing and job performance in Catalan university employees: a randomised controlled trial Global Health Promotion, December 1, 2008; 15(4): 11 - 16. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. G. Chipperfield Everyday Physical Activity as a Predictor of Late-Life Mortality Gerontologist, June 1, 2008; 48(3): 349 - 357. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. F. Leitzmann, Y. Park, A. Blair, R. Ballard-Barbash, T. Mouw, A. R. Hollenbeck, and A. Schatzkin Physical Activity Recommendations and Decreased Risk of Mortality Arch Intern Med, December 10, 2007; 167(22): 2453 - 2460. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Magwere, R. Pamplona, S. Miwa, P. Martinez-Diaz, M. Portero-Otin, M. D. Brand, and L. Partridge Flight activity, mortality rates, and lipoxidative damage in Drosophila. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., February 1, 2006; 61(2): 136 - 145. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|