Associations of Daily Walking Time With Pneumonia Mortality Among Elderly Individuals With or Without a Medical History of Myocardial Infarction or Stroke: Findings From the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: The association between daily walking and pneumonia mortality, stratified by the presence of disease conditions, such as myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke, was investigated.

Methods: The study participants were 22,280 Japanese individuals (9,067 men and 13,213 women) aged 65-79 years. Inverse propensity weighted competing risk model was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for pneumonia mortality.

Results: After a median of 11.9 years of follow-up, 1,203 participants died of pneumonia. Participants who did not have a history of MI or stroke and who walked for 1 hour/day or more were less likely to die from pneumonia (HR 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.98) than those walked for 0.5 hours/day. A similar inverse association of pneumonia and walking (0.5 hours/day) was observed among participants with a history of MI (HR 0.66; 95% CI, 0.48-0.90). Among the participants with a history of stroke, those who walked for 0.6-0.9 hours/day were less likely to die because of pneumonia (HR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.43-0.98).

Conclusions: Regular walking for ≥1 hour/day may reduce the risk of pneumonia mortality in elderly individuals with or without cardiovascular disease history.

Keywords: epidemiology; influenza; motor activity; pneumonia; walking.