Now, the researchers drew anonymized records for 48,440 adult men
and women who used the Kaiser health care system, had their exercise
habits checked at least three times in recent years and, in 2020,
had been diagnosed with Covid-19. The researchers grouped
the men and women by workout routines, with the least active group
exercising for 10 minutes or less most weeks; the most active for at
least 150 minutes a week; and the somewhat-active group occupying
the territory in between.
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The researchers gathered data, too, about each person’s known risk
factors for severe Covid, including their age, smoking habits, weight,
and any history of cancer, diabetes, organ transplants, kidney problems
and other serious, underlying conditions.
Then the researchers crosschecked numbers, with arresting results.
People in the least-active group, who almost never exercised,
wound up hospitalized
because of Covid at twice the rate of people in the most-active group,
and were
subsequently about two-and-a-half times more likely to die. Even
compared to people in the somewhat-active group, they were
hospitalized about 20 percent more often and were about 30 percent
more likely to die.
The Kaiser Permanente health care system was well suited for this
investigation, because, since 2009, it has included exercise as
a “vital sign” during patient visits. In practice, this means doctors
and nurses ask patients how many days each week they exercise,
such as by walking briskly, and for how many
minutes each time, then add that data to the patient’s medical record.
Now, the researchers drew anonymized records for 48,440 adult men
and women who used the Kaiser health care system, had their exercise
habits checked at least three times in recent years and, in 2020, had
been diagnosed with Covid-19. The researchers grouped the men and
women by workout routines, with the least active
group exercising for 10 minutes or less most weeks; the most active
for at least 150 minutes a week; and the somewhat-active group
occupying the territory in between.Editors’ Picks
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Of the other common risk factors for severe disease, only
advanced age and organ transplants increased the likelihood of
hospitalization and mortality
from Covid ore than being inactive, the scientists found.
“Being sedentary was the greatest risk factor” for severe illness,
“unless someone was elderly or an organ recipient,” says
Dr. Robert Sallis, a family and sports medicine doctor at the
Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, who led the new study.
And while “you can’t do anything about those other risks,” he says,
“you can exercise.”Of course, this study, because it was observational,
does not prove that exercise causes severe Covid risks to drop,
but only that people who often exercise also are people with
low risks of falling gravely ill. The study also did not delve
into whether exercise reduces the risk of becoming infected with
coronavirus in the first place. Dr.Sallis points out that the
associations in the study were strong.
“I think, based on this data,” he says, “we can tell people that
walking briskly for half an hour five times a week should help protect
them against severe Covid-19.”
A walk — or five — might be especially beneficial for people awaiting
their first vaccine, he adds. “I would never suggest that someone who
does regular exercise should consider not getting the vaccine.
But until they can get it, I think regular exercise is the most important
thing they can do to lessen their risk. And doing regular exercise will
likely be protective against any new variants,
or the next new virus out there.”
