Dose-response relationship between physical activity and health outcomes

Abstract

In a public health perspective, it is important to understand the relationship between the dose‑response curve of physicalactivity and health outcomes. Studies aiming to investigate such relationships must consider the inter‑relationship among the components of physical activity as the volume (frequency and duration) and intensity. Evidence suggests an inverse dose‑response between the total volume of physical activity and all-cause mortality risk in both sex, among young adulthood and older subjects who spend at least 500 kcal/week (ideally at least 1000 kcal/week), walk 1 to 2 miles/day continuously or in short bouts of10 to 15 minutes along the day, showing a risk reduction of about 20% to 30%. To date, no clear data exist regarding the dose-response shape of the curve between the intensity of physical activity and the risk of clinical events, including all-cause mortality. This may be explained bythe difficulties faced by researchers in precisely quantifying physical activity behavior in real life conditions. Future studies should be able to incorporate new technologies that will challenge investigators, considering the enormous set ofdata that will be probably gathered almost in real-time and therefore needed to be analyzed properly.