Inactivity is the third biggest risk for developing severe Covid-19 and dying, after advanced age and a history of organ transplant, a large observation study in the US has found.
Covid-19 patients who were “consistently physically inactive” during the two years before the pandemic were 2.5 times more likely to die of Covid-19 and 73% more likely to need intensive care than those patients meeting the US guidelines for physical activity per week.
“After taking account of potentially influential factors, such as race, age and underlying medical conditions, patients with Covid-19 who were consistently physically inactive were more than twice as likely to be admitted to hospital as those who clocked up 150+ minutes of physical activity every week,” first author Dr Robert Sallis, in the department of Family and Sports Medicine at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in California, reported this week.
The researchers compared the severity of Covid-19 infection among 48,440 adults from January and October 2020 in the observational study, looking at their level of physical activity and outcomes — including hospital admission rates, the need for intensive care and death.
Of the total, about 9% were admitted to hospital, 3% required intensive care and 2% died.
This message is especially important given the increased barriers to achieving regular physical activity during lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions.
— Study’s authors
Consistently meeting the activity guidelines of 150+ minutes was “strongly associated with a reduced risk of these outcomes”, the findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, indicate.
More than 60% of those in the study were women, the average age was 47, and the average weight was a body mass index of 31 (classified as obese).
About half had no underlying health risks or conditions including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and cancer.
Nearly a third had two or more underlying conditions, and nearly a fifth had one.
All the patients had reported their level of “regularly physical activity” at outpatient clinics at least three times between March 2018 and March 2020 and the records indicate:
- 7% consistently meeting guidelines of 150+ minutes of physical activity every week;
- 78% reporting “some activity”, defined as 11-149 minutes per week;
- 15% consistently inactive, defined as 0-10 minutes of activity per week.
“White patients were most likely to consistently meet physical activity guidelines (10%), followed by Asian patients (7%), Hispanic patients (6%) and African-American patients (5%),” according to the study.
Advanced age, being male and certain underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, have been identified as risk factors for getting severe Covid-19, but inactivity has not been singled out — until this study.
“This is an observational study and, as such, can’t establish cause,” the authors noted.
Moreover, there was no measure of exercise intensity beyond “moderate to strenuous exercise (such as a brisk walk)” and the study relied on the patients’ own reporting of how active they were.
The six authors recommend that public health authorities let people know that “engaging in regular [physical activity] may be the single most important action individuals can take to prevent severe Covid-19 and its complications, including death” besides vaccination and following public health safety guidelines including wearing masks and social distancing.
“This message is especially important given the increased barriers to achieving regular [physical activity] during lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions,” they concluded.
When police minister Bheki Cele ruled out dog walking (brisk or otherwise) and jogging in SA’s first level 5 lockdown, he said there was “no need to move about”.
The latest scientific evidence suggests otherwise.
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