April 26, 2015 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu 

A 2014 publication entitled, "Leisure-time running reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk," from researchers in the Arnold School of Public Health’s Department of Exercise Science has recently been named a Top Ten Paper by the American Heart Association Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Council. The paper, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was selected by the Council from among numerous nominations from respected journals and recognized scholars in nutrition, obesity prevention, physical activity and cardiometabolic health.

The Council sponsors other awards, such as the Top Cardiovascular Disease Research Advances, but this is the first year that the top ten papers have been ranked. The inaugural status of this award makes the paper’s designation as “one of the most impactful publications in Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health in 2014” even more significant.

The study examined leisure-time running behaviors of more than 55,000 adults (ages 18-100) over a 15-year period using data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. The team found that running as little as 5 to 10 minutes per day can reduce cardiovascular mortality rate by 45 percent and all-cause mortality rate by 30 percent.

On average, runners lived three years longer than non-runners. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that practitioners and educators promote running in order to reduce mortality risk from a broader, public health perspective.

Lead author D.C. (Duck-chul) Lee, who is now an assistant professor at Iowa State University, previously held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Exercise Science under the guidance of co-authors and exercise science faculty Russell Pate, Xuemei Sui and Steven Blair (additional co-authors include Carl J. Lavie and Timothy S. Church).