Abstract Objectives To investigate the association between physical activities (PA) and accelerated ageing indexed by retinal age gap. Methods A total of 35,913 participants aged from 40 to 69 years with sufficient levels of physical activity data were included in the present analysis. Physical activity was computed as metabolic equivalent (MET)min/week, weighted by the energy expended for each type of activity according to the well-validated short International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) scoring manual guideline. Total physical activity levels were also divided into three groups: low (< 600 MET min/week), moderate (600 to < 3000 MET min/week), and high (≥ 3000 MET min/week). Retinal age gap was defined as the difference between the retina-predicted age and chronological age. Linear and logistic regression models were applied to estimate the association of PA with retinal age gap as a continuous and categorical variable, respectively. Results After comprehensive adjustment for covariates, significantly negative associations were observed between time allocated for walking ( β = − 0.059, 95% CI − 0.104 to − 0.015), moderate-intensity activity ( β = − 0.105, 95% CI − 0.150 to − 0.061), vigorous-intensity activity ( β = − 0.100, 95% CI − 0.145 to − 0.056), overall activities ( β = − 0.117, 95% CI − 0.162 to − 0.073) and the retinal age gaps. When participants were divided into different PA categories based on all activities, participants in the high PA group showed a significant decrease in retinal age gaps compared with the low PA group ( β = − 0.254, 95% CI = − 0.380, − 0.128; P < 0.001). Conclusions We found an inverse association between PA and accelerated ageing indexed by retinal age gap. This finding reinforces the benefits of a physically active lifestyle.
Chen et al. (Sat,) studied this question.