Occupational physical activity, all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality in 349,248 adults: Prospective and longitudinal analyses of the MJ Cohort

Emmanuel Stamatakis; Matthew N Ahmadi; Tiana-Lee Elphick; Bo-Huei Huang; Susan Paudel; Armando Teixeira-Pinto; Li-Jung Chen; Borja Del Pozo Cruz; Yun-Ju Lai; Andreas Holtermann; Po-Wen Ku

doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2024.03.002

Occupational physical activity, all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality in 349,248 adults: Prospective and longitudinal analyses of the MJ Cohort

J Sport Health Sci. 2024 Mar 8:S2095-2546(24)00025-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2024.03.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Electronic address: emmanuel.stamatakis@sydney.edu.au.
² Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
³ Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁴ Department of Exercise Health Science, "National" Taiwan University of Sport, Taichung 40404, China.
⁵ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5230, Denmark.
⁶ Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Puli Branch of Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Nantou 54552, China.
⁷ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense 5230, Denmark; National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark.
⁸ Graduate Institute of Sports and Health Management, "National" Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, China.

PMID: 38462173
DOI: 10.1016/j.jshs.2024.03.002

Abstract

Background: Evidence on the health benefits of occupational physical activity (OPA) is inconclusive. We examined the associations of baseline OPA and OPA changes with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer mortality and survival times.

Methods: This study included prospective and longitudinal data from the MJ Cohort, comprising adults over 18 years recruited in 1998-2016. 349,248 adults (177,314 women) with baseline OPA, of whom 105,715 (52,503 women) had 2 OPA measures at 6.3 ± 4.2 (mean ± SD) years apart. Exposures were baseline OPA, OPA changes, and baseline leisure-time physical activity.

Results: Over a mean mortality follow-up of 16.2 ± 5.5 years for men and 16.4 ± 5.4 years for women, 11,696 deaths (2033 of CVD and 4631 of cancer causes) in men and 8980 deaths (1475 of CVD and 3689 of cancer causes) in women occurred. Combined moderately heavy/heavy baseline OPA was beneficially associated with all-cause mortality in men (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.93, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.89-0.98 compared to light OPA) and women (HR = 0.86, 95%CI: 0.79-0.93). Over a mean mortality follow-up of 12.5 ± 4.6 years for men and 12.6 ± 4.6 years for women, OPA decreases in men were detrimentally associated (HR = 1.16, 95%CI: 1.01-1.33) with all-cause mortality, while OPA increases in women were beneficially (HR = 0.83, 95%CI: 0.70-0.97) associated with the same outcome. Baseline or changes in OPA showed no associations with CVD or cancer mortality.

Conclusion: Higher baseline OPA was beneficially associated with all-cause mortality risk in both men and women. Our longitudinal OPA analyses partly confirmed the prospective findings, with some discordance between sex groups.

Keywords: Cancer; Cardiovascular disease; Epidemiology; Mortality.