This applies to infections as well as to severe disease progression and a 43 percent lower mortality rate from the disease. This is what Spanish scientists filtered out of 16 studies with more than 1.8 million adult participants worldwide. Yasmin Ezzatvar from the University of Valencia and her co-authors recently published their research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They analyzed studies with 1,853,610 participants with an average age of 53 years on Covid-19 again: from the point of view of the physical activity of the participants. The studies came from South Korea, Great Britain, Spain, Brazil, Palestine, South Africa and Sweden.
Regular physical activity apparently has a clearly positive effect on Covid-19, as the scientists wrote: “Our results highlight the protective effect of sufficient physical activity as a health strategy. This can help prevent severe Covid-19 disease progression.”
Overall, hobby athletes showed an eleven percent reduction in the infection rate (studies evaluated from November 2019 to March 2022) by SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, there were 36 percent fewer hospital admissions due to Covid-19 among physically active people. The frequency of serious illnesses decreased by 34 percent compared to “couch potatoes”. There were 43 percent fewer deaths.
The scientists also differentiated according to the intensity of the sport practiced. Accordingly, the greatest effect was achieved with the activities recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO): 150 minutes of moderate physical exertion through sport or 75 minutes of intensive physical activity per week. More was of no use in terms of Covid-19.
Source: Nachrichten
