Study suggest staying active to boost quality of life in middle aged women

The results revealed that on average, people who consistently met physical activity guidelines and those who first started to meet guidelines at age 55 had a three-point higher PCS compared to those that did not meet physical activity guidelines. The effect of physical activity on the PSC was significant even after controlling for socioeconomic factors and pre-existing health diagnoses. However, there was no significant association between physical activity and MCS.

“Combined with existing evidence, this study contributes to growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age,” the authors say. “An important public health message is that being active for as many years as possible, even if women start to meet physical activity guidelines in their mid-50s, could have important health benefits in terms of physical health, especially in physical functioning.Our study shows that it’s important for women to be active throughout mid-age to gain the most benefits for physical health in later life. Ideally, women should increase their activity levels to meet the guidelines by age 55,” said the study authors.

Reference:Binh Nguyen ,PhilipClare,Gregore I. Mielke,Wendy J. Brown,Ding Ding; Physical activity across midlife and health-related quality of life in Australian women: A target trial emulation using a longitudinal cohort; PLOS Medicine; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004384