Intensity versus duration of cycling, impact on all-cause and XXXX mortality: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

@entity1 @entity301
BACKGROUND: Current recommendations prescribe that every adult should accumulate 30   minutes or more of moderate physical activity in leisure time, preferably every day of the week. The optimal intensity, duration, and frequency still have to be established. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of intensity versus duration of cycling on all-cause and @entity301 mortality. DESIGN: Relative intensity and duration of cycling were recorded in 5106 apparently healthy @entity1 and @entity1 aged 21-90 years drawn from the general population of Copenhagen, and followed for an average of 18 years. Total number of deaths during follow-up was 1172, of these 146 were @entity301 deaths. For both sexes we found a significant inverse association between cycling intensity and risk of all-cause and @entity301 death, but only a weak association with cycling duration. The difference in expected lifetime in relation to intensity of cycling was calculated. @entity1 with fast intensity cycling survived 5.3 years longer, and @entity1 with average intensity 2.9 years longer than @entity1 with slow cycling intensity. For @entity1 the figures were 3.9 and 2.2 years longer, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that the relative intensity, and not the duration of cycling, is of more importance in relation to all-cause and @entity301 mortality. Thus our general recommendations to all adults would be that brisk cycling is preferable to slow.
