A team from Stanford University Medical Center here have discovered that elderly people who are long-term joggers were less likely to die from medical conditions such as cancer as compared with those who are not joggers. They were also healthier and had fewer disabilities.
The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, started in 1984. Researchers surveyed 284 people from a nationwide running club and 156 healthy non-runners. They were all university faculty members and staff who had the equally comparable social and economic backgrounds and were 50 and above.
Each respondent filled out survey forms every year. The survey aimed to monitor the participant's exercise frequency, weight and disability for eight activities, including rising, dressing and grooming, hygiene, eating, walking, reach, hand grip and routine physical activities.
In the early years of the study, the runners ran an average of four hours every week. After 21 years, they had reduced their weekly running time to 76 minutes but still engaged in regular exercise.
According to Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues who worked on the study, 34 percent of the non-runners have died after 19 years whereas only 15 percent of the runners have passed away.
