Also persons with cardiovascular disease should aim for 100 PAI to live longer. PAI is short for Personal Activity Intelligence, and we have previously shown that those who achieve 100 PAI or more every week live for an average of almost five years longer than others. Our new restults show that this is also true for heart and stroke patients.

Read more about PAI

We estimated PAI in more than 3000 participants who reported previous myocardial infarction, angina or stroke in the HUNT1 Study, and followed them for up to 30 years. Those who achieved 100 PAI or more had 36 % lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes compared to inactive patients. They also lived for an average of five years longer than those who earned less than 100 PAI. To achieve 100 PAI was a better predictor of future health benefits than achieving today's exercise recommendations.

Read the full article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings:
Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) and Mortality in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease, the HUNT study

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Obese and inactive persons had almost double the risk of atrial fibrillation compared to those who were normal weight and highly physically active. On the other hand, the risk was only increased by approximately 50 % in those who were obese and active. Thus, it looks like physical activity modifies the risk of atrial fibrillation in obese individuals.

We included more than 43 000 Norwegian men and women who participated in the third wave of the Nord-Trøndelag Health study between 2006 and 2008. By 2015, almost 1500 of them had a confirmed diagnosis of atrial fibrillation collected from hospital registers. Increasing levels of physical activity were linked to gradually lower risk of atrial fibrillation. Further analysis showed that this was especially true for obese persons.

Read the full article in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology:
Physical activity modifies the risk of atrial fibrillation in obese individuals: The HUNT3 study

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Physical activity seems to protect against demetia-related mortality both in persons with and without symptoms of anxiety or depression. We followed 37,000 Norwegians for up to 20 years, and exercise with high intensity was linked to the lowest risk of dying of or with dementa during follow-up. Among those who reported several symptoms of psychological distress, regular high-intensity activity was assoicated with less than half the risk of dementia-related death.

The study includes middle-aged and older women and men from seven of the largest population-based studies performed in Norway between 1994 and 2002. In total, more than 900 of the participants died of or with dementia before 2015.

Read the full article in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience:
Leisure-time physical activity is associated with reduced risk of dementia-related mortality in adults with and without psychological distress: The Cohort of Norway

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To stay fit and avoid depressive symptoms could be of great importance for health. Participants who maintained high fitness and reported low symptoms of depression over time had the lowest risk of dying during follow-up. The study is based on information from more than 15,000 middle-aged women and men from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study.

We used our Fitness Calculator to estimate fitness for all participants. Those who had high fitness and low symptoms of depression at both the two surveys they attended had only half the risk of dying during seven years of follow-up, compared to those who reported persistently high levels of depressive symptoms and had low estimated fitness over time. Fit persons who improved symptoms of depression from the first to last survey also had reduced risk of early death.

Read the full article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings:
Long-term Changes in Depressive Symptoms and Estimated Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Risk of All-Cause Mortality: The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study

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