The study found that patients who were consistently inactive had 1.73 times greater odds of ICU admission than those who were consistently active, and their odds for death were 2.49 times greater.
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PASADENA, Calif. A Kaiser Permanente study of nearly 50,000 people with COVID-19 suggested that regular physical activity provided strong protection from hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and death. Even exercising inconsistently lowered the odds for severe COVID-19 outcomes when compared to people who were not active at all.
The study, led by investigators in Kaiser Permanente Southern California, was published in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine. This is a wake-up call for the importance of healthy lifestyles and especially physical activity, said Robert E. Sallis, MD, a family and sports medicine physician at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center. Kaiser Permanente s motivation is to keep people healthy, and this study truly shows how important that is during this pandemic and beyond. People who regularly exercise had the best chance of beating COVID-19, while people who were inactive did much worse.