SYDNEY, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Not only structured exercise, short bouts of incidental activity, such as climbing stairs or speedily mopping floors, can also benefit people's health and reduce disease risks, said a new study.

The study, which was led by researchers from the University of Sydney and published in The Lancet Public Health on Friday, analyzed wrist-worn wearables data of seven-day incidental physical activity patterns of 25,241 UK adults aged 42 to 78 from the UK Biobank, which were then linked with the participants' health records.

After tracking for around eight years, the researchers found that participants, who self-reported no participation in exercise or sport, doing short bouts of less than ten minutes at a moderate to vigorous intensity may see a steep decrease in major cardiac events, such as heart attack and stroke, and death by any cause.

Meanwhile, participants moving consistently for at least one to three minutes could achieve more benefit than bouts less than one minute. The longer and the higher percentage of vigorous activity in each bout, the better.

"This study suggests people could potentially reduce their risk of major cardiac events by engaging in daily living activities of at least moderate intensity where they are ideally moving continuously for at least one to three minutes at a time," said lead author Matthew Ahmadi, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Center.

However, the researchers admitted that the observational nature of the study means they cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship with certainty.

It is learned that most people are not meeting recommended physical activity guidelines. Fewer than one in five middle-aged adults engage in regular exercise due to reasons like cost, time commitment, health status and access to facilities or infrastructure.

"The idea of accruing short bouts of moderate to vigorous activity through daily living activities makes physical activity much more accessible to people who are unwilling or unable to take part in structured exercise," said Ahmadi, stressing that "the length and the vigor people put into these incidental activities matters." Enditem

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