BMJ Medicine
Not just how much you move—activity variety predicts mortality risk
Across more than 111,000 adults in two major U.S. cohorts, 38,847 deaths occurred over 2.4 million person‑years. Most activities—including walking (hazard ratio [HR], 0.83), jogging (HR, 0.89), running (HR, 0.87), tennis or squash (HR, 0.85), and weight training (HR, 0.87)—were associated with lower all‑cause mortality, while swimming showed no clear benefit (HR, 1.01). Variety of physical activity was associated with lower mortality, independent of total physical activity levels. Those in the highest-variety group had 19% lower all‑cause mortality and 13% to 41% lower cause‑specific mortality than those in the lowest-variety group.
Clinical takeaway: Encourage patients to mix multiple activity types to maximize mortality benefit.
Source:
Han H, et al. (2026, January 20). BMJ Medicine. Physical activity types, variety, and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies. https://bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/5/1/e001513