Regular physical activity may boost the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination, researchers report today.
South African researchers, reporting in today’s British Journal of Sports Medicine, also say the level of protection provided against serious infection increases with the amount of physical activity.
There is evidence that regular physical activity helps protect against serious COVID-19 infection, reduces the risk of hospital admission, intensive care, assisted ventilation or death. Vaccination also minimises these risks, the researchers say.
While previous research on the additive effects of physical activity on vaccination against various infections suggests it enhances the body’s antibody response, it is not known if this also applies to SARS-CoV-2.
A team from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg-Braamfontein, examined anonymised medical records and drew on data from wearable activity trackers worn by healthcare workers belonging to a medical insurance scheme and as part of a health promotion and behavioural change programme.
Participants’ physical activity was categorised according to their average monthly levels in the two years preceding the start of the study: under 60 minutes of a week (low); at least 60-149 minutes (medium); and more than 150 minutes (high).
COVID-19 swab test results were analysed for 53,771 participants with low levels of physical activity, 62,721 with medium levels, and 79,952 with high levels.
Data on general health, COVID-19 vaccination (from mid-February to end of October 2021) and physical activity were obtained for 196,444 adults who tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.
People in the low activity group had a 60% reduced risk of hospitalisation when fully vaccinated against COVID-19 compared to 72% and 86% respectively for medium and high physical activity groups.
Although this is an observational study, the researchers write: “The findings suggest a possible dose–response where high levels of physical activity were associated with higher vaccine effectiveness.
“This substantiates the WHO recommendations for regular physical activity-namely, that 150–300 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week has meaningful health benefits in preventing severe disease, in this context against a communicable viral infection.”
Although it is not known how physical activity enhances vaccination, the researchers say it may be a combination of enhanced antibody levels, improved T cell immunosurveillance, and psychosocial factors.
They also point out that mitochondria have an important part in immunity and physical activity helps to maintain mitochondrial quality.
“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,” they add.
Collie S, Saggers RT, Bandini R et al. Association between regular physical activity and the protective effect of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in a South African case–control study. British Journal of Sports Medicine 25 October 2022
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