A new study shows that regular physical activity is associated with a lower risk of contracting COVID-19 and its severity, including hospitalization and death.
Author: medical editor Mazeina Ekaterina 1 minute
This is stated in a pooled analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It is enough to spend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or at least 75 minutes of intensive exercise weekly.
Previous research shows that physical activity can reduce both the risk of infection and the severity of respiratory infections, at least partly due to its ability to strengthen the immune system.
The link between regular physical activity and COVID-19 severity is poorly understood but likely involves both metabolic and environmental factors, the researchers say. They attempted to quantify the threshold of physical activity that may be necessary to reduce the risk of infection.
Scientists searched three major databases for relevant studies published between November 2019 and March 2022 and combined the findings results.
A total of 1,853,610 adults participated in the studies, of which just over half (54%) were women. The average age of the participants was 53 years. Most of the studies were observational and were conducted in South Korea, England, Iran, Canada, the UK, Spain, Brazil, Palestine, South Africa, and Sweden.
Analysis of the pooled data showed that, in general, those who included regular physical activity in your daily routine, the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, was 11% lower.