Saint-Maurice, who is an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, added, “We know exercise is good for us. This study provides additional evidence of the benefits at the population level: if all adults in the United States (over age 40) were to exercise just a bit more each day, a large number of deaths could be prevented each year,”

To perform the study, the researchers examined health records and mortality rates of 4,840 participants between the ages of 40 to 85, from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database, to understand if small increases in their activity level prevented deaths.

The researchers measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity based on data gathered from the volunteers, who wore accelerometers — a device that measured how active they were – once a week.

At the end of the study, the researchers found that increasing physical activity by 10 minutes per day would prevent 111,174 deaths across the US population annually.

Also, a 20-minute increase could see the country’s fatality toll drop by 13 per cent while a 30-minute rise would trigger a 16.9 percent decrease.

Source: HealthWise