A new research has suggested that women who exercise in their teenage years have a lower risk of death from cancer and other health isuues in their middle and older ages.
Lead author Sarah J. Nechuta and colleagues used data from the Shanghai Women's Health Study from Shanghai, China, and the study included detailed information on participants reported at baseline recruitment, including self-reported exercise participation between the ages of 13 and 19, adult lifestyle-related factors, and mortality outcomes.
After an average of 12.9 years of follow-up, there were 5,282 deaths, including 2,375 from cancer and 1,620 from cardiovascular disease.
The results shows that after adjusting for socioeconomic factors in adult life, the women who participated in exercise as adolescents for 1.33 hours a week or less had a 16 percent lowered risk for death from cancer, and a 15 percent lowered risk for death from all causes and those who participated in exercise as adolescents for more than 1.33 hours a week had a 13 percent lowered risk for death from all causes.
Women who participated in team sports as adolescents had a 14 percent lowered risk for death from cancer, and a 10 percent lowered risk for death from all causes, and those who participated in exercise both in their adolescent and adult lives had a 20 percent lowered risk for death from all causes.
Nechuta said that adolescent exercise participation, regardless of adult exercise, was associated with reduced risk of cancer and all-cause mortality in women.
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She added that their results supported the importance of promoting exercise participation in adolescence to reduce mortality in later life and highlight the critical need for the initiation of disease prevention early in life.
The study is published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.