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A large new study from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the U.S. found that exercise’s impact on health and longevity differs between women and men. The researchers report that women get more benefit from physical activity for less training time than men.
What Did the Researchers Discover?
We already know regular exercise cuts the risk of heart problems and premature death. But the researchers found that the size of that risk reduction differs by sex: women need less physical activity than men to get the same benefit.
The team analyzed data from over 412,000 American adults aged 27 to 61, of whom 55 percent were women.
That data were collected from 1997 to 2017 as part of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
The survey asked about the types of exercise participants did and the frequency, duration, and intensity of their workouts.
The researchers also considered participants’ health status and their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.
The team also examined the National Death Index (a database of death records).
They focused on overall mortality rates and the share of deaths due to cardiovascular disease.
During the study period, 39,935 participants died, with 11,670 deaths attributed to heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
Thirty-two percent of surveyed women and 43 percent of men reported that they regularly engaged in aerobic exercise, dedicating at least 150 minutes per week to these activities. Compared with inactive people of the same sex, women who exercised regularly had a 24 percent lower risk of dying from any cause. By contrast, the mortality reduction for active men was only 15 percent, according to Live Science.
“Women gain more benefit from every minute of moderate or vigorous activity than men,” said Dr. Marti Gulati, the lead author of the study.
For men, a reduction in mortality risk from all causes appeared at about 300 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity per week. Women saw the same reduction after roughly 140 minutes per week—less than half that time. Women reached the maximum observed benefit at about 300 minutes of exercise.
The researchers found that this pattern held across different amounts of exercise: women consistently saw proportionally greater benefits from any amount of activity than men.
What Else Did the Researchers Find?
About 20 percent of women and 28 percent of men reported engaging in strength training, such as weightlifting. Women reported an average of 0.85 sessions of strength training per week, while men reported 1.25 sessions.
Women who did strength training at least twice a week had a 19 percent lower risk of mortality compared with women who trained less often or not at all. For men, twice-weekly strength training was associated with an 11 percent lower risk compared with inactive men.
These benefits were strongest for heart-related deaths.
Active women who did aerobic exercise had a 36 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, while active men saw about a 14 percent reduction. Strength training produced similar reductions: 30 percent for women and 11 percent for men.
“I hope this groundbreaking study motivates women who are not regularly active to understand that they can gain significant health benefits from every additional minute of exercise,” said co-author Kristina Albert.
The study’s findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
