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Short bursts of daily activity linked to reduced cancer risk

28 July 2023
Wearable technology reveals potential benefits of vigorous incidental activity
Promising new research suggests a total of just 4.5 minutes of vigorous activity that makes you huff and puff during daily tasks could reduce the risk of some cancers by up to 32 percent.

Published in JAMA Oncology and led by the University of Sydney, Australia, the study used data from wearable devices to track the daily activity of over 22,000 鈥榥on-exercisers鈥. Researchers then followed the group鈥檚 clinical health records for close to seven years to monitor for cancer.

As few as four to five minutes of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity or 鈥榁ILPA鈥 was associated with a substantially lower cancer risk compared to those who undertook no VILPA.

Vigorous Intermittent Lifestyle Physical Activity, or VILPA for short, was coined by researchers at the University of Sydney鈥檚 Charles Perkins Centre to describe the very short bursts of activity鈥攁round one minute each鈥攚e do with gusto each day. This includes activities like vigorous housework, carrying heavy shopping around the grocery store, bursts of power walking or playing high-energy games with the kids.

Professor Stamatakis

Professor Stamatakis

鈥淰ILPA is a bit like applying the principles of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to your everyday life,鈥 said lead author 笔谤辞蹿别蝉蝉辞谤听Emmanuel Stamatakis聽of the Charles Perkins Centre.

He said adults who don鈥檛 exercise are at increased risk of developing certain cancers like breast, endometrial or colon, but until recently the impact of less structured forms of vigorous physical activity was unable to be measured.

鈥淲e know the majority of middle-aged people don鈥檛 regularly exercise which puts them at increased cancer risk but it鈥檚 only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living,鈥 said first author Professor Stamatakis.

鈥淚t鈥檚 quite remarkable to see that upping the intensity of daily tasks for as little as four to five minutes a day, done in short bursts of around one minute each, is linked to an overall reduction in cancer risk by up to 18 percent, and up to 32 percent for cancer types linked to physical activity.鈥
Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis

The study is observational, meaning it isn鈥檛 designed to directly explore cause and effect. However, the researchers say they are seeing a strong link and refer to previous early-stage trials showing that intermittent vigorous physical activity leads to rapid improvements in cardio-respiratory fitness, which may provide a possible biological explanation for reduced cancer risk. Other likely contributors include physical activity鈥檚 role in improving insulin sensitivity and chronic inflammation.

鈥淲e need to further investigate this link through robust trials, but it appears that VILPA may be a promising cost-free recommendation for lowering cancer risk in people who find structured exercise difficult or unappealing,鈥 says Professor Stamatakis.

笔谤辞蹿别蝉蝉辞谤听Karen Canfell, Director of the聽, a joint research venture between Cancer Council NSW and the University of Sydney, said regular physical activity was an important strategy for preventing cancer, through direct physiological benefits and indirect benefits in helping to maintain a healthy weight.

鈥淢ore than 1800 cancer cases diagnosed in Australia this year are likely to be the direct result of physical inactivity, while many more will be indirectly related to physical inactivity because of its association with obesity, which is also a cancer risk factor,鈥 said Professor Canfell who was not involved in the study.

鈥淭his new study shows that the more you move at a higher intensity as part of your daily living, the lower your risk of developing cancer, especially up to the 13 types associated with physical inactivity.鈥

The international research team on the聽JAMA Oncology聽study includes investigators from the University of Sydney (Australia), University College London (UK), Harvard Medical School (US), University of Calgary (Canada), Maastricht University (The Netherlands), National Research Centre for the Working Environment (Denmark), The University of East Anglia (UK), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), Loughborough University (UK), and University of Adger (Norway).

What did the researchers find?

Infographic showing 4.5 mins of daily VILPA = up to 32% cancer risk reduction

In a study sample of 22,398 people with an average age of 62 who didn鈥檛 exercise in their leisure time, the researchers found;

  • 2356 new cancer events (1084 in physical activity related cancer) over an average follow-up of 6.7 years
  • a minimum of around 3.5mins of daily VILPA was associated with up to 18 percent reduction in cancer incidence (compared with no VILPA)
  • 4.5 mins of daily VILPA was associated with up to 32 percent reduction in physical activity-related cancer incidence
  • the steepest gains in cancer risk reduction were seen in people who did small amounts of VILPA compared to those who did none, however, benefits continued with higher levels of daily VILPA - 聽particularly for physical activity-related cancers
  • most VILPA (92 percent) occurred in bouts of up to 1min.

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Infographic showing 22,398 people monitored for physical activity and health records followed for 7 years

The current study analysed the impact of VILPA on overall cancer incidence, as well as for 13 cancer sites associated with physical activity; these include liver, lung, kidney, gastric cardia (a type of stomach cancer), endometrial, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, colorectal, head and neck, bladder, breast and esophageal adenocarcinoma (cancer of the oesophagus)

The researchers used data from the UK Biobank Accelerometry Sub 高清福利片 and only included those who identified as 鈥榥on-exercisers鈥 鈥 meaning they self-reported no leisure time exercise and no regular recreational walks.

They excluded study participants that could skew the results including due to previous cancer diagnosis or diagnosis within a year of enrolment. Other influences such as age, smoking status, BMI, cardiovascular disease, sleep, diet and hereditary cancer risk were also taken into account.

VILPA was assessed based on the participant鈥檚 activity levels as measured by wrist accelerometers worn over 7 days at study onset. This is consistent with other wearable studies as physical activity levels remain relatively stable at the population level over adulthood.

New cancer events were recorded via cancer registries, and hospitalisations or deaths attributable to cancer.

Next steps

鈥淲e are just starting to glimpse the potential of wearable technology to track physical activity and understand how unexplored aspects of our lives affect our long-term health 鈥 the potential impact on cancer prevention and a host of other health outcomes is enormous,鈥 said Professor Stamatakis.


Declaration: The study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (Investigator grant and Ideas Grant). No conflicts of interest are reported.

Michelle Blowes

Media & PR Adviser (Medicine and Health)

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