Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the differential improvements in life expectancy associated with participation
in various sports.
Patients and Methods
The Copenhagen City Heart Study (CCHS) is a prospective population study that included
detailed questionnaires regarding participation in different types of sports and leisure-time
physical activity. The 8577 participants were followed for up to 25 years for all-cause
mortality from their examination between October 10, 1991, and September 16, 1994,
until March 22, 2017. Relative risks were calculated using Cox proportional hazards
models with full adjustment for confounding variables.
Results
Multivariable-adjusted life expectancy gains compared with the sedentary group for
different sports were as follows: tennis, 9.7 years; badminton, 6.2 years; soccer,
4.7 years; cycling, 3.7 years; swimming, 3.4 years; jogging, 3.2 years; calisthenics,
3.1 years; and health club activities, 1.5 years.
Conclusion
Various sports are associated with markedly different improvements in life expectancy.
Because this is an observational study, it remains uncertain whether this relationship
is causal. Interestingly, the leisure-time sports that inherently involve more social
interaction were associated with the best longevity—a finding that warrants further
investigation.
Abbreviations and Acronyms:
CCHS (Copenhagen City Heart Study), CHD (coronary heart disease), CRF (cardiorespiratory fitness), HR (hazard ratio), LTPA (leisure-time physical activity), PA (physical activity)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Mayo Clinic ProceedingsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Coronary heart-disease and physical activity of work.Lancet. 1953; 265: 1053-1057
- Habitual level of physical activity and risk of coronary heart disease: the Framingham Study.Can Med Assoc J. 1967; 96: 811-812
- Physical activity, all-cause mortality, and longevity of college alumni.N Engl J Med. 1986; 314: 605-613
- Physical activity and the incidence of coronary heart disease.Ann Rev Pub Health. 1987; 8: 253-287
- Reduction of premature mortality by high physical activity: a 20-year follow-up of middle-aged Finnish men.Lancet. 1987; 1: 1473-1477
- Leisure-time physical activity levels and risk of coronary heart disease and death. The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial.JAMA. 1987; 258: 2388-2395
- Exercise in leisure time: coronary attack and death rates.Br Heart J. 1990; 63: 325-334
- Changes in physical fitness and all-cause mortality: a prospective study of healthy and unhealthy men.JAMA. 1995; 273: 1093-1098
- Changes in physical activity, mortality, and incidence of coronary heart disease in older men.Lancet. 1998; 351: 1603-1608
- Baseline and previous physical activity in relation to mortality in elderly men: the Zutphen Elderly Study.Am J Epidemiol. 1999; 150: 1289-1296
- Physical activity recommendations and decreased risk of mortality.Arch Intern Med. 2007; 167: 2453-2460
- Walking and primary prevention: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.Br J Sports Med. 2008; 42: 238-243
- Slow walking speed and cardioascular death in well functioning older adults: prospective cohort stud.BMJ. 2009; 339: b4460
- Total mortality after changes in leisure time physical activity in 50 year old men: 35 year follow-up of population based cohort.Br J Sports Med. 2009; 43: 482
- Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study.Lancet. 2011; 378: 1244-1253
- Physical activity and risk of cardiovascular disease: what does the new epidemiological evidence show?.Curr Opin Cardiol. 2013; 28: 575-583
- Frequent physical activity may not reduce vascular disease risk as much as moderate activity: large prospective study of women in the United Kingdom.Circulation. 2015; 131: 721-729
- Leisure time physical activity and mortality: a detailed pooled analysis of the dose-response relationship.JAMA Intern Med. 2015; 175: 959-967
- Epidemiology of physical activity and exercise training in the United States.Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2017; 60: 3-10
- Impact of persistence and non-persitence in leisure time physical activity on coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality: the Copenhagen City Heat Study.Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2017; 24: 1615-1623
- Intensity versus duration of walking, impact on mortality: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil. 2007; 14: 72-78
- Intensity versus duration of cycling, impact on all-cause and coronary heart disease mortality: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2012; 19: 73-80
- Mortality in joggers: population based study of 4658 men.BMJ. 2000; 321: 602-603
- Physical activity in leisure time: impact on mortality. Risks and benefits.Dan Med Bull. 2009; 56: 40-71
- Longevity in male and female joggers: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.Am J Epidemiol. 2013; 177: 683-689
- Dose of jogging and long-term-mortality. The Copenhagen City Heart Study.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015; 65: 411-419
- Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk.J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014; 64: 472-481
- Running and mortality: is more actually worse?.Mayo Clin Proc. 2016; 91: 534-536
- Running as a key lifestyle medicine for longevity.Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2017; 60: 45-55
- Effects of running on chronic diseases and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.Mayo Clin Proc. 2015; 90: 1541-1552
- Exercise and the cardiovascular system: clinical science and cardiovascular outcomes.Circ Res. 2015; 117: 207-219
- Personalized exercise dose prescription.Eur Heart J. 2018; 39: 2346-2355
- Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80,306 British adults.Br J Sports Med. 2017; 51: 812-817
- The associations between participation in certain sports and lower mortality are not explained by affluence and other socioeconomic factors.Br J Sports Med. 2017; 51: 1514-1515
- The Copenhagen City Heart Study - Østerbroundersøgelsen. Tables with data from the third examination 1991-1994.Euro Heart J. 2001; 3: H1-H83
- Cardiovascular survey methods.Monogr Ser World Health Organ. 1968; 56: 1-188
- Checking the Cox model with cumulative sums of martingale-based residuals.Biometrika. 1993; 80: 557-572
- Adjusted survival curve estimation using covariates.J Chronic Dis. 1982; 35: 437-443
- The Social Cure: Identity, Health and Well-Being.Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis Group, Hove and New York2011: 408
- Impact of cardiac rehabilitation and exercise training on psychological risk factors and subsequent prognosis in patients with cardiovascular disease.Can J Cardiol. 2016; 32: S365-S373
- Received social support and exercising: an intervention study to test the enabling hypothesis.Br J Health Psychol. 2015; 20: 763-776
- Stress and life dissatisfaction are inversely associated with jogging and other types of physical activity in leisure time--The Copenhagen City Heart Study.Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2005; 15: 107-112
- Comparing the happiness effects of real and on-line friends.PLoS One. 2013; 8: e72754
- The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn From the New Research on Well-Being.Princeton University Press, Princeton2010: 272
- Effects of a 12-week intervention period with football and running for habitually active men with mild hypertension.Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010; 20: 72-79
- High intensity interval training for maximizing health outcomes.Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2017; 60: 67-77
- The making of a pro-cycling city: social practices and bicycle mobilities.Environ Planning A. 2017; 49: 876-892
- Potential adverse cardiovascular effects from excessive endurance exercise.Mayo Clin Proc. 2012; 87: 587-595
- The relationships between golf and health: a scoping review.Br J Sports Med. 2017; 51: 12-19
- Golf: a game of life and death--reduced mortality in Swedish golf players.Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2009; 19: 419-424
- A comparison of observational studies and randomized, controlled trials.N Engl J Med. 2000; 342: 1878-1886
- Associations of educational attainment with disability and life expectancy by race and gender in the United States: a longitudinal analysis of the panel study of income dynamics.J Aging Health. 2016; 28: 1403-1425
Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 04, 2018
Footnotes
Grant Support: The study was supported by the Danish Heart Foundation.
Potential Competing Interests: The authors report no competing interests.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
