When it comes to daily excercise and longer life expectancy, less of the former is still pretty good for the latter. That's what the findings of a recently published study of over 400,000 people in Taiwan suggest.

Present recommendations by the health community in many countries call for adults to perform at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week, but researchers in Taiwan sought to determine if exercising less than that amount could still provide measurable differences in life expectancy.

The study, funded by the Taiwan Department of Health Clinical Trial and Research Center of Excellence and National Health Research Institutes, was conducted over a period of 12 years and included 416,175 people in Taiwan, who were tracked an average of eight years each. Based on their self-reported results for weekly activity level, each participant was placed into one of five categories: inactive, low, medium, high or very high. The researchers calculated hazard ratios for each group's mortality risk compared to those in the inactive group to determine each group's life expectancy. Compared with those in the inactive group, who performed little physical activity, people in the low-volume activity group (those who exercised for an average of 92 minutes each week) showed a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality, and showed a three year longer life expectancy.

More exercise is better, the researchers noted, but remarked that appreciable gains can come with comparatively small amounts of physical activity. The study, published recently in the medical journal The Lancet, found that for every additional 15 minute increment of daily exercise beyond the 15 minute minimum needed to see any benefit, all-cause mortality was reduced by another 4%. The researchers found that the benefits applied to all age groups and both genders.

By comparison with those in the low-volume group, participants in the inactive group had a 17% increased risk of mortality. The researchers suggest that 15 minutes a day or 90 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise "might be of benefit, even for individuals at risk of cardiovascular disease."

The researchers also noted reported changes in behavior among participants sufficient to suggest that people who start to do more exercise tend to further increase their amount of activity, more backing for the argument for the self-perpetuating nature of exercise.

The data is all the more compelling when viewed alongside the results of another study published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that suggests that people who watch television for six hours each day can expect to live five years less than if they had not.

While it might seem like just another news nugget that promises a simple fix for a complex issue, the purpose of the study in Taiwan points to the increasingly global interest in the concept of personal fitness and health maintenance as an attainable goal for everyone, not just for those with greater disposable incomes and more free time.

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