Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Regular physical activity may boost the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the level of protection rising in relation to activity level, a new study suggests.
Specifically, the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine reduced the risk of hospital admission by 60% among fully vaccinated adults in the study's low physical activity category.
By contrast, the COVID-19 vaccine lowered such risk in the medium and high physical activity groups by 72% and 86%, respectively, the South African researchers found.
The study's findings were published Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Shirley Collie, chief health analytics actuary at Discovery Health, which provides administration and managed care services to 3.3 million-plus beneficiaries in Johannesburg, South Africa, was the lead author.
The study looked at the data of nearly 200,000 healthcare workers ages 18 and older who wore wearable fitness trackers.
Participants were placed in a physical activity category based on their average monthly levels of physical activity in the two years preceding the start of the study.
People engaging in fewer than 60 minutes of at least moderate-intensity physical activity per week were put in the low activity group.
The moderate activity group included individuals doing 60 minutes to 149 minutes of at least moderate-intensity physical activity per week, while the high activity group included people doing at least 150 minutes per week of such activity.
"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 in their paper.
