Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Volume vs intensity of physical activity and risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular chronic diseases
- Prospective cohort study
- population-based
- UK Biobank
Authors' conclusion
A higher %VPA, independent of total activity volume, is inversely associated with eight major chronic diseases and all-cause mortality. Intensity consistently demonstrated a higher preventive potential than total PA volume.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank participants with device-measured (wrist-worn accelerometer) or self-reported (IPAQ) physical activity (PA)375,730 with self-reported PA
- Participants
- 96,408 participants
- Exposure
- Proportion of vigorous PA relative to total PA volume
- Outcome
- Incidence of eight chronic diseases (MACE, AF, T2DM, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, MASLD, chronic respiratory diseases, CKD, dementia) and all-cause mortality
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
All outcomes (device-measured data), adjusted for total PA volume
Non-linear inverse dose-response between %vigorous physical activity (VPA) and all outcomes, consistent across strata of total PA volume
all P < .001
>4% VPA vs 0% VPA: lower risks of these outcomes
29%-61%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Population attributable fraction, intensity vs volume
- Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases
- 20.3% vs 1.0%
- Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)
- 17.8% vs 6.0%
- AF
- 16.2% vs 5.0%
- Chronic respiratory diseases
- 21.4% vs 5.6%
- Dementia
- 32.3% vs 8.1%
- T2DM
- 26.6% vs 17.7%
- MASLD
- 22.1% vs 16.6%
- Chronic kidney disease (CKD)
- 23.0% vs 15.3%
- All-cause mortality
- 31.4% vs 14.2%
Original publication
Volume vs intensity of physical activity and risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular chronic diseases. Eur Heart J. Published 29 March 2026. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehag168
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it