Just five extra minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each day, such as brisk walking, could reduce the risk of premature death by an estimated 10%, according to a study of 135,000 people from the UK, US, Norway and Sweden. The research, led by the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and published in the Lancet, also found that reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes a day was associated with a 7% reduction in all deaths.
The greatest benefits were observed among the least active 20% of the population who increased their activity by five minutes daily. The authors stressed that while the findings should not be used as individual exercise recommendations, they highlight the potential population-wide benefits of small lifestyle changes.
Professor Aiden Doherty of the University of Oxford described the analysis as “excellent” and “a leap forward” from existing evidence, noting that up to 10% of premature deaths might be prevented if everyone made small increases in activity. Daniel Bailey of Brunel University London added that moderate activities like brisk walking, housework or gardening are feasible for most people.
A separate study in eClinicalMedicine, involving nearly 60,000 UK Biobank participants, found that combining small improvements in sleep, physical activity and diet could extend life. For example, an extra five minutes of sleep, two minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity, and half a serving of vegetables daily could add a year of life for those with the worst habits.
