Studies link small improvements in physical activity with longevity, fewer deaths...

Key Highlights

• The study defined the worst combination of behaviours as five-and-a-half hours of sleep per day, physical activity of under 10 minutes and a poor score in diet quality.
• The most optimal combination — seven to eight hours of sleep per day, at least 40 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day and a healthy diet — was associated with over nine years of additional lifespan and years spent in good health.
• The team highlighted that the combined relationship of sleep, physical activity and diet is larger than the sum of the individual behaviours.
• For example, to gain one year of lifespan through sleep alone, people with the unhealthiest combination would require five times the additional amount of five minutes — or 25 minutes — per day, than if physical activity and diet also improved a small amount.
• “A minimum combined improvement of five minutes per day of sleep, 1.9 minutes per day MVPA (moderate to vigorous physical activity), and a five-point increase in diet quality score (e. g., additional (half) serving of vegetables per day or additional 1.5 servings of whole grains per day) was associated with one additional year of lifespan,” the authors wrote.