Slow walkers are almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19, and have over twice the risk of contracting a severe version of the virus, according to a team of researchers from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.
The study of 412,596 middle-aged UK Biobank participants examined the relative association of body mass index (BMI) and self-reported walking pace with the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 and COVID-19 mortality.
The analysis found slow walkers of a normal weight to be almost 2.5 times more likely to develop severe COVID-19 and 3.75 times more likely to die from the virus than normal weight fast walkers.
According to the research normal weight slow walkers are more at risk of both severe disease and death than obese fast walkers. Furthermore, risk was uniformly high in normal weight slow walkers and obese slow walkers, according to the team behind the study, The Daily Mail reported.
The findings have been published in the journal International Journal of Obesity.
