Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity Is Associated with 5-Year Mortality

Most evidence about associations between physical activity and health outcomes is based on self-reported sedentary time and physical activity. In this meta-analysis, researchers determined associations between accelerometry-measured activity and all-cause death in eight studies with individual-level data on 36,383 participants (mean age, 63; 73% women). Accelerometers measured intensity of activity in “counts per minute” and total physical activity and sedentary time as “minutes per day.”

During a median follow-up of 5.8 years, 2149 deaths occurred. In an analysis of total activity (adjusted for multiple variables), participants in the first quartile (least total activity) had highest risk for all-cause death; risk was significantly lower in…