In 479,856 US adults, muscle strengthening alone was linked to lower risk of death

What the study found

Points to benefit

Muscle strengthening alone: all-cause death HR 0.89 (95% CI 0.85 to 0.94). Aerobic alone 0.71; both 0.60 (0.57 to 0.62).

The study at a glance

Type of study

Population study: followed a group

Who or what was studied

479,856 people · US adults aged 18 and older in a national health survey

What was tested

Meeting the guideline for muscle strengthening only, aerobic only, or both, vs not meeting guidelines. Median follow-up 8.75 years.

What it measured

The question itself: death from any cause and healthy aging

Who has a stake

No stake declared
No competing interests declared; no financial ties to interested organisations.

Journal

BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2020

Source

PubMed record 32611588. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

• –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
• ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
• ✓Large: 479,856 people.
• ✓Measured the question itself: death from any cause and healthy aging.
• ✓No competing interests declared.
• •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

How it fits with the other research

Of the other 8 papers on the same step: 7 benefit, 1 mixed. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

• Quoted in “What we found”: Doing both strength and aerobic activity was linked to the lowest death risk: HR 0.60 for both, vs 0.89 for muscle strengthening alone and 0.71 for aerobic alone.
• Part of the finding “Population studies link strength training to fewer deaths”.
• Part of the finding “Strength plus aerobic activity linked to lowest risk”.
• Marked as a key paper in the research timeline: Large US survey: strength alone linked to fewer deaths.
• Open item for a person: Zhao 2020, López-Bueno 2023, Wei 2024 and Ji 2024 all use the US National Health Interview Survey; the same people likely appear across papers.

Other papers on the same step

• In 147,374 US nurses and health professionals, resistance training linked to lower death risk
  Population study: followed a group2026Points to benefit
• In 412,413 US adults, leisure activity linked to lower death risk, more in women
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 216,339 older US adults, weight training linked to slightly lower risk of death
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• 6-month study of 381 adults with acute pancreatitis: supervised exercise linked to fewer deaths
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 47,538 adults with type 2 diabetes, strength activity went with lower death risk
  Population study: followed a group2024Points to benefit
• In 500,705 US adults, aerobic plus muscle-strengthening activity linked to lowest death risk
  Population study: followed a group2023Points to benefit

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