Research
Mixed
Excess weight (BMI ≥25) and physical inactivity (<3.5 hours/week) together account for a substantial proportion of premature deaths (31% of all deaths, 59% of CVD deaths) in nonsmoking women.
To prevent premature death, public health efforts should focus on both maintaining a healthy weight and staying physically active. These two factors combined are responsible for nearly one-third of all premature deaths and more than half of cardiovascular deaths in this population.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
We estimate that excess weight... and physical inactivity... together could account for 31 percent of all premature deaths, 59 percent of deaths from cardiovascular disease, and 21 percent of deaths from cancer among nonsmoking women.
Why this rating
Large cohort, long follow-up, rigorous adjustment.
Source
Adiposity as Compared with Physical Activity in Predicting Mortality among Women
Frank B. Hu et al. · New England Journal of Medicine · 2004
DOI 10.1056/nejmoa042135
cohort · n=116564Cited 802×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- High levels of physical activity do not eliminate the increased mortality risk associated with obesity (BMI ≥30); obese active women have nearly double the mortality risk of lean active women.Strong
- Physical inactivity (defined as <3.5 hours of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week) is a strong, independent predictor of mortality, increasing risk even in lean women.Strong
Related findings · Mixed
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