New longitudinal study highlights benefits of an active lifestyle to boosting women’s ageing quality

A new study published 2nd May in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Binh Nguyen of University of Sydney and colleagues, shows consistent adherence to physical activity guidelines throughout middle-age is associated with a higher health-related quality of life in women.

The research on which the paper is based was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health by the University of Queensland and the University of Newcastle. The research includes computations using the computational cluster Katana supported by Research Technology Services at UNSW Sydney.

The evidence for an association between physical activity and health-related quality of life has been based primarily on cross-sectional studies and short-term randomised controlled trials. Few longitudinal studies have measured physical activity at more than one time point and examined the long-term causal effects of exercise.

One of the main strengths of the new study are the large cohort and the repeated physical activity measures over a long exposure period. 

In the new study, researchers used data collected at three-year intervals beginning in 1996 from 11,336 participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Women were born in 1946 through 1951, making them 47 to 52 years old at the study outset.

Participants were classified as either meeting WHO physical activity guidelines - of 150 minutes of activity a week - consistently throughout the fifteen-year exposure period, not initially meeting the guidelines but starting to meet them at age 55, 60 or 65, or never meeting the guidelines.

Health-related quality of life was assessed using the physical health composite score (PCS) and mental health composite score (MCS) from the Short Form 36 Health Survey, which includes 36 questions about functional health and well-being.

On average, people who consistently met physical activity guidelines and those who first started to meet guidelines at age 55 had a three-point higher PCS (46.93 [95% CI 46.32 to 47.54] and 46.96 [95% CI 45.53 to 48.40], respectively), compared to those that did not meet physical activity guidelines (43.90 [95% CI 42.79 to 45.01]). The effect of physical activity on the PSC was significant even after controlling for socioeconomic factors and pre-existing health diagnoses. However, there was no significant association between physical activity and MCS.

The authors note "Combined with existing evidence, this study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age. An important public health message is that being active for as many years as possible, even if women start to meet physical activity guidelines in their mid-50s, could have important health benefits in terms of physical health, especially in physical functioning."

The authors add "Our study shows that it's important for women to be active throughout mid-age to gain the most benefits for physical health in later life. Ideally, women should increase their activity levels to meet the guidelines by age 55."

Access the study in PLOS Medicine Journal