Regular exercise may enhance effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine

Exercising regularly may improve effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the benefits appear to rise with activity levels, according to researchers.

“Physical activity enhances vaccine effectiveness against severe COVID-19 outcomes and should be encouraged by greater public health messaging,” Shirley Collie, the chief health analytics actuary at Discovery Health in South Africa, and colleagues wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The researchers conducted a test negative case-control study design to estimate the risk for COVID-19-related hospital admission among health care workers who were unvaccinated vs. those who were fully vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. They stratified the 196,444 participants based on their levels of physical activity: low (fewer than 60 minutes per week), moderate (between 60 and 149 minutes) and high (150 minutes or more) levels.

After studying the data from medical records and wearable activity trackers, Collie and colleagues found that, for those in the low activity group, the risk for COVID-19-related hospital admission was reduced by 60% (95% CI, 39-73.8).

The moderate activity group saw better results, with a 72.1% reduced risk (95% CI, 55.2-82.6). Those in the high activity group saw the greatest benefit, with an 85.8% reduced risk (95% CI, 74.1-92.2).

Compared with participants with low physical activity levels, vaccinated participants with moderate activity levels had a 1.4 (95% CI, 1.36-1.51) times lower risk for COVID-19-related hospital admission, while those in the high activity group had a 2.8 (95% CI, 2.35-3.35) times lower risk.

“The findings suggest a possible dose response, where high levels of physical activity were associated with higher vaccine effectiveness,” the researchers wrote. “This substantiates the WHO recommendations for regular physical activity — namely, that 150-300 min of moderate to intensity physical activity per week has meaningful health benefits in preventing severe disease, in this context against a communicable viral infection.”

However, the researchers noted that “these results may not be generalizable to new COVID-19 variants, such as omicron, or other vaccine platforms, and the exact biological mechanism contributing to these observations is unknown.

“Public health messaging should encourage physical activity as a simple, cost-effective way of enhancing vaccine effectiveness to mitigate the risk of severe COVID-19 illness requiring hospital admission,” the researchers concluded.

References:

• Collie S, et al. BJ Sports Med. 2022;doi:10.1136/bjsports-2022-105734.
• Regular physical activity may boost effectiveness of COVID-19 jab. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/968666. Published Oct. 24, 2022. Accessed Oct. 27, 2022.